The Darkling Thrush

I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.

Thomas Hardy, written, he claims, on 31st December 1900, which he considered the final day of the 19th Century, (there was no Year 0).

What makes us so interested about the New Year, and why so many celebrations at the Millennium? What is is that makes people so desperately excited by these arbitrary dates? The Chinese New Year takes place at an entirely different time to our New Year, and yet is celebrated as fervently. The Year 2000, (whether the beginning or the end), does not mark 2000 years since Jesus' birth, (as he was probably actually born in 5 BC), and for most of the people celebrating, that's pretty irrelevant anyway. If we had one fewer finger on each hand, (like The Simpsons), we would probably be using base 8, in which case the figure '2000' would be achieved after what we would consider to be 1024 years, and the nearest equivalent celebration for us would be Base 8 3000, which would occur at the equivalent of our 2048. So the Millennium is all a bit silly, and New Year could be seen as the same.

After some thought, I would beg to differ. New Year is an annual celebration, and, due to the refinement of the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar, it is annual. It represents the cycle that Hardy calls 'The ancient pulse of germ and birth.' It is in repetition, claimed Kierkegaard, that we are the happiest, neither yearning for the different, (and therefore almost automatically better) time of the past, or for the hope of the future. No matter how much our lives change- no matter how many traumas, tragedies, triumphs and troubles we negotiate, there is always the new year. A tabula rasa. A chance for something better. We claim that our lives can be different, and take on resolutions, challenges which few of us will fulfill for any length of time. But it's an effort worth making. Who could argue that taking 'a cup o'kindness', stopping a moment to think of acquaintances, isn't right. New Year challenges us to improve ourselves, or at least to consider what we have done well in the previous 365 days or so. But, cry the knowledgable cynics, Tchaikovsky's lengthy preamble once again precludes any mention of that funny little show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which this board is supposed to be about. And, furthermore, there's no suggestion that New Year is an important part of the Buffyverse. When do the gand stop for their annual bout of consideration and reflection. Maybe never. Maybe at New Year's parties we never see. But, through the (sometimes unreliable) perspective lens that we are given, so valuably, the time for slow down and wind up occurs between seasons. Buffy's New Years happen somewhere in the void between late May and early September. The rest of this post examines some trends and differences in our heroes, (yes, it's plural, so sue me), Janus moments.

Season One to Two- stasis and disillusionment.

I've always feared a cutting down to size on anything to do with Season One, due to my relative lack of knowledge, and having once balanced a tenuous argument on faulty assertions upon 'Welcome to the Hellmouth'. So I will attempt to tread carefully here. The first scene of the second Season's premiere 'When She Was Bad', is Willow and Xander, sounding a trifle bored and nonplussed. In their lives, very little has happenned, and for them, it might be fair to say that the Summer has had no effect whatsoever. Certainly for Giles nothing has changed. But for Buffy, everything is different. Hank admits that Buffy seemed distant and difficult to communicate with. As well as her hurt over the divorce, and awkward re-establishment of a relationship with her Dad, (particularly with the fears shown in 'Nightmares), it becomes clear that Buffy's death, and the Master's influence, is still very powerful, and is affecting her relationships and even judgement. Of course in Buffy, emotion becomes reality, and the Master's undestroyed bones are the symbols by which her lack of resolution of the issue reappears in reality. Here at the beginning of Season Two, we see a pattern that Joss Whedon uses every year. He has always claimed that every Season is a natural end point, an argument which has not been always believed. I would say that there is a degree of truth in this, until the next Season's premiere. In the premiere of Season Two it becomes painfully clear that Buffy has not, mentally and emotionally, laid the Master to rest. Her death has had profound effects on her, and it takes her an entire episode for an epiphany that the world is still to be enjoyed.

For Willow, Xander and Giles, the first hiatus is about stasis. They may as well have been frozen until we return to them, and there boredom both encapsulates the real boredom of the high schools students with the long summer, and serves as a neat joke that we [the audience] have not missed much despite our protracted absence. For Buffy, the hiatus has had another effect that will become familiar. While there is no large plot development, the summer has had an effect of time amplifying the smallest emotion. The great healer can also be the best way of realising that an original way of overcoming something may not be wholly sufficient.

Season Two to Three- growth and return.

Buffy's Campbellian journey has been highlighted on this board to such a great length that I feel almost like a member of the Second Generation of this Board. While many of the original posters canonised the Universal Journey, there has recently been a kind of rebellious swing against old Joe, claiming that he is given too much time here and elsewhere. While my almost first opportunity to be a board rebel shouldn't be surrenderred so easily, I do feel that there is an interesting parallel between the Season 2-3 hiatus, and a later happening, as suggested by Campbell. The Soup Man suggests that the Hero in literature has a universal journey. One section of this involves a death, (literal or metaphorical), followed by a resurrection, which is never entirely simple, and a slow and tricky re-integration to the world and the Quest, at the end of which He (usually) is more well-equipped to deal with the problems of the world. This trend has been argued to be Buffy's at the end of 'The Gift', ad certainly through to Season Six. I would, hesitantly agree. But it is also worth pointing out how many of these criteria are met in the Season Two-Three hiatus. Here, the Season is once again tied up as a quite possible ending. Angelus is banished, Spike and Dru expel themselves, and Acathla is thwarted. Once again, for the bedrock of Buffy's life, Xander, Willow and Giles, little changes, as shown by their largely cheery conversation at the end of 'Becoming'. But for Buffy, the winning of the victory is a petit mort. She loses all the foundations of her life. Barred from school, shunned in Joyce�s weakest moment by her family, feeling unable to count her friends, and sacrificing her boyfriend so that a world she no longer fully comprehends can continue. Buffy�s exile is a kind of death, in the way that her Death in �The Gift� is a real death. Her resurrection is self-inflicted, out of an understanding that she is not worthless, and most definitely not 'Anne'.

But it takes several episodes to re-establish Buffy�s equilibrium. �Dead Man�s Party� certainly doesn�t achieve it, with relationships strained, and our Hero within a hair�s breadth of giving up again. �Faith, Hope and Trick� provides her with no confirmation of her value, with Faith seemingly effortlessly fillng her shoes. Ironicait is only when the nature of her death is changed somewhat, with the resurrection of Angel having nascent consequences in �Beauty and the Beast�, that Buffy starts to re-integrate. It is arguable that Angel�s return for Buffy, is entirely analogous to the Snow for Angel, in providing a symbol of something worth living for. But that�s for another essay. Buffy's exile and return makes the hiatus a great, largely untold story in itself.

For the other members of the Scooby Gang, the hiatus is a slightly more eventful one than the previous, but still with little to comment upon. Giles has little growth, but is entirely reactionary, almost like a character without the lead who makes sense of the plot arc, (of course, that�s exactly what he is, and at this stage, he�s not really well-formed enough to have independent human motivations. He doesn't fully breathe for me until Season Four, or at leat 'Helpless'). Willow, Xander, Cordelia and Oz have a more interesting little development, becoming an attempt at a force to replace the Slayer. This development is shown in Season Three, as their unit becomes more and more important, until culminating in Buffy�s hearywrenching anf feelgood speech at the end of 'Checkpoint'. So here, the hiatus is a little death and resurrection for Buffy, with more linear development for the other characters.

Season Three to Four- Failure and Reinvention

The end of Season Three is perhaps the most natural end that the show ever came to. The philosophy central to the show, �High School is Hell�, was no longer relevant. The most important set was blown up, the characters grown-up, (hmmm, the rest of ths essay is brought to you in rhyming couplets. Only joking).

Season Four once again, and, as we'll see, with every season, represents a crisis of faith for Buffy. For the Hand of the group, there is perhaps little to be gained from compulsory pit-stops. Whatever the deep psychological reason, Buffy once again needs to re-negotiate the role of Slayer with herself. This time the re-invention mirrors a really big, real-life experience- living away from home, going to College. 'The Freshman' is one of my very favourite episodes of 'Buffy', maybe exaggerated compared to many of you others because I started college less than eighteen months ago. And it hits the nail right on the head. You feel like you�re a different person, and the cosily simple cariacature you develop for yourself through High School will no longer serve. You're actually the same person, and the discovery of that, and the ability to grow, means that often there�s a chrysalis/butterfly experience just waiting to happen. But the feeling of disorientation to start with can be horrible, and 'The Freshman' captures that perfectly. So here Buffy must re-invent herself again. In fact, much of the cast re-invent, and it should be mentioned that Cordelia�s re-invention involves changing scene and show completely. For Giles, the re-invention never happens, and so the season long lack of adjustment leads to a beautiful personal arc for the ex-librarian. The real wildcard of the Season's hiatus is Xander, who appears not to fit the bill at all. In fact, that genius Whedon uses his apparent growing-up as the stasis to contrast with Buffy and Willow. Xander's 'You're my hero' speech justifies his entire road trip to me, but actually Joss is doing something on a deeper level. While at the end of Season Three, it appears that Buffy and Willow are staying in the same place, Xander is moving on, becoming Jack Kerouac's 'typed' prose. We see Xander as the character who will have to grow up, while the others can stay much as they are. However, Whedon has patented subversion. Willow and Buffy really do move on with life, finding new spheres of learning, and new relationships. Meanwhile, Xander's ambitious and romantic road-trip fails entirely, and the apparently grown-up one has no development at all. For his journey, read stasis. For the others' staying-put, read growth.

Season Four to Five- Examination and Reapplication.

'Restless' is the best episode of Buffy ever, and don't even try to argue. Fears, hopes, aspirations, ambitions, thoughts, memories, failings. And so much humour, and so much pathos. The hiatus between the Seasons Four and Five appears not to do much. It is the hiatus which is most suggestive of a holiday of all of them. We finish 'Restless' with a watching of videos, and begin 'Buffy vs Dracula' with a beach picnic. It seems like a relaxing summer of consolidation, particularly with the still-not-entirely-matured relationships between Buffy and Riley, (which never really takes off), Willow and Tara, (best relationship ever portrayed on Buffy, and we know how that ends), and Xander and Anya, (which is at this stage the 'funny' relationship, and little more. So in this time where little happens, we are again given to that exaggeration of small issues. What exactly is the Slayer, asks Buffy to Giles. The repeated words of Tara and Dracula, (even if one line is inverted), encapsulate what Buffy learns from this hiatus- the need for examination. The examination never quite admits clarity until the end of Season Five, as the logical, Mind-controlled Examination fails anyway in a great display of spirit.

Otherwise, the hiatus is all about a renewed application to old tasks, with Giles renewing Watcher duties, Xander beginning to settle his life down, (with the extra jump-start of 'The Replacement'), and Willow trying to understand and expand her (thusfar innocent) interest in magic, as well as her relationship with Tara.

Season Five to Six- Rebirth and Redesignation.

Buffy's death at the end of 'The Gift' was the most dramatic emotional resolution since 'The Gift', and the already documented Campbellian rebirth and re-integration was important throughout Season Six., But through the hiatus itself, Buffy the character was doing little, (being, as she would later say, 'all dead and frugal'.) So the rebirth which appears to be the most obvious facet of our penultimate hiatus is actually a subsequent footnote, and we should really be looking at the other characters of the show. Willow, told by Buffy that she is the strongest of her group in 'The Gift', has been exalted to the sparkly 'Boss of Us' role by 'Bargaining'. This redesignation is part of the reason that talk between Willow and Buffy is tricky after her resurrection. Willow is made to relinquish the role. Simultaneously, Giles is redesignated as surplus to requirements, mistakenly considering the show all over, and the BBC theme tune for 'Ripper' just around the corner. These redesignations end up being harmful. They show what the characters would like to do, but are quickly taken from them as Buffy is re-born. This leads Giles to reconsider his decision to leave, which he ultimately, (and I would argue correctly) decides is still the best option for him and, by inference, everyone. Willow now feels stuck by Buffy's retaking of the leadership role, a typically (for Season Six) never-addressed grievance which builds towards the fun of the dual in 'Two to Go'.

Season Six to Seven- Smile-infusion and rehabilitation

This hiatus seems to be the first one in which one of the major developments has been in the writers themselves. Despite the lack of the feared Fun Fun Fun, of 'Back to School; Back to Cool', there has been a different, somewhat less defeatist tone to the series this year, which has come from a conscious decision on the part of the writers to reconsider the trajectory of the stories. They gave many of the characters a smile infusion, which, while not as organic as many of the other hiatus developments have been, has been almost universally welcomed. Meanwhile, Buffy again renegotiates her role as Slayer, this time in the guise of Counsellor, and, in parallel, remembers to renegotiate her role as surrogate mother with Dawn, so that she is 'showing' her the world rather than 'protecting her from it'. This acts as the conclusion to her long rehabilitation into the world, just as Willow's somewhat quicker rehabilitation from world-destroyer to witch-but-still-Willow begins in 'Lessons'.

Overall there appear to be several consistent trends in Buffy the Vampire Slayer�s hiatuses. Renegotiation of character, or more extremely, death and rebirth. Slow, non-epiphanic development, or failure of that development. Slow exaggeration of small feelings of insecurity by time. And always, for us the viewer, a sense of anticipation for a New Season.

Can we learn from what our Scooby Gang do at their New Years? Of course. We can always learn from them. Sometimes we learn something is harder than it looks. At other times, we realise their example is exemplary. But their breaks lead to a new life consistent but somehow different, and often better.

May 2003 bring us all that feeling of growth and development. Happy New Year.

TCH