EPISODE 5.02
REAL ME
Written by:
David Fury
Directed
by: David Grossman
Who are you?
At the end of “Buffy vs Dracula”,
Buffy sees a strange girl in her room and angrily asks what she is doing there. For us the presence of this girl would not have been that
much of a surprise. Even the
greatest of spoilerphobes (is that a word?) must have known that at the
beginning of season 5 Buffy would be gaining a sister.
No, the real surprise came when Joyce invited Buffy to take her
“sister” out. As one Buffy and
Dawn turned on her with the age old cry of complaint “Mom!”.
Something had changed radically in Buffy’s life yet from her reaction
it was as if having Dawn there was the most natural thing in the world.
That was what lent an air of unreality to the whole scene.
The introduction of Dawn was always going
to pose two very important questions. The
first was how would the writers explain her presence at all.
Unsurprisingly we were going to have to wait for the answer to this one.
The more important the mystery the longer it had to be kept a mystery.
But we did get a small clue even here:
Deranged Man:
“What are you doing here? You can't loiter. There's no loitering. That's why
I'm a cat. Quiet. See, cat's in the cupboard but they find you there anyway, and
it hurts. Please, make it stop. Shut up, shut up, they'll hear you!
Dawn: “Buff-
“
Man: “I know
you. Curds and whey. I know what you are. You ... don't ... belong ... here. “
So far so very obscure – especially the
Miss Moffett reference. But it was
our first clue and the very fact of giving it was the writers’ promise that
they would explain Dawn’s presence in due course.
The second question was how would Dawn fit
into the long established pattern of relationships in the Buffyverse.
And the answer to this question self-evidently could not wait.
In “the Real Me” the writers inserted Dawn almost seamlessly into
this pattern as if she had always been part of it.
This took some nerve. But
the thing I liked most about it was the way they went about doing this.
It is of course commonplace that BUFFY has
used the supernatural as a metaphor through which to explore stages in the
real-life development of adolescents. Somewhere
in season 4 this focus was lost. But
here the writers rediscovered it. Adolescence
is often characterized by a feeling of alienation.
This feeling is a common theme in drama about growing up but in “The
Real Me” we look at one particular aspect of it:
the pain of being misunderstood. We
see this from Dawn’s very first diary entry, immediately after the opening
credits:
“Nobody knows
who I am. Not the real me. It's like, nobody cares enough to find out. I mean,
does anyone ever ask *me* what I want to do with my life? Or what my opinion is
on stuff? Or what restaurant to order in from?”
For teenagers in particular their
perceptions of themselves and their place in the world differ markedly from
their parents and even their older siblings.
Equally a teenager’s view of their older family members bears little
relationship to how the latter see themselves. This difference in perception
forms the central theme of this episode and the
focus for exploring this theme is the relationship between on the one
hand a girl whom we have known until now as an only child and on the other a
“sister” we did not know existed. In
this way, the writers are able to explore the difference between perception and
reality (especially in way in which teenagers relate to the world around them)
through the way in which Dawn relates to each of the Scoobies in general and her
“big sister” in particular. And
at the same time they are able to launch the “Dawn arc” by introducing her
to the audience and tease us with references like those in the diary entry I
have just quoted which seem to emphasize the unreality of Dawn’s situation. All in all I thought that this was a very neat little
package.
In all of this the central relationship is
between Dawn and Buffy rather than between Dawn and Joyce.
Indeed the principal conflict Joyce has is with Buffy rather than Dawn
and to a certain extent this undermines the choice of theme because in the life
of any teenage it parent-child dynamic is obviously going to be the most
significant one. But this was
probably inevitable. It is not only
that the whole of season 5 was about the relationship between Buffy and her faux
sister. It is also true that in
many ways Buffy’s own perceptions of her role in life come under scrutiny
here.
But of course none of this would have
worked at all if the difference in perceptions
hadn’t been so closely observed and cleverly worked into the storyline.
Every teenager is of course the center of his or her own universe
and every other creature in that universe only exists to serve the
teenager’s needs.
So, at the beginning of this episode we see Buffy’s training
unceremoniously interrupted by Dawn who is blissfully unaware of its importance
and afterwards we see Dawn commandeer her sister’s cereal, bowl and milk
without so much as a thought. Even
in her diary entry the emphasis she gives to her own thoughts shows who occupies
the center of her world. The
corollary of that is, of course, that anyone else is so
unimportant as to be beneath her notice. And here the way in which Dawn airily dismisses being a
slayer is both hilarious and a very nice example of the “supernatural
metaphor” in action:
“People
wouldn't be so crazy about her if they had to live in the same house with her
every single day. Everybody cares what she thinks. Just 'cause she can do
backflips and stuff. Like that's *such* a crucial job skill in the real world.
Plus Mom lets her get away with everything. "Your sister's saving the
world." I could so save the world if somebody handed me super powers; but
I'd think of a cool name and wear a mask to protect my loved ones, which Buffy
doesn't even.”
The counterpart to this is that for older
siblings younger teenagers are a nuisance.
They are only children. Older
teens on the other hand are important people and the things they have to do are
important as well. So when Buffy
has to take Dawn for school supplies instead of going to the magic shop for
training she see that as a waste of her valuable time.
And when they find Mr Bogarty’s body her reaction is less protective
than dismissive as she roughly shoves her outside:
Buffy: “It's
nothing you need to see, Dawn, go wait outside.”
Dawn: “I
don't wanna wait outside!”
Buffy:
“Dawn!”
Dawn: “Ow,
that hurt! You're hurting me. I'm telling.”
Buffy: “Look,
I don't have time for this. Just do as I say and wait.”
For
her Dawn is simply in the way and it is left to Tara to actually think about her
feelings. Dawn knows and resents
this. In particular she resents
being thought of as a kid. She
dislikes having to be left with a babysitter, takes umbrage when Riley calls her
that and warms to Xander when she thinks he treats her like a grown-up.
So
what we have here is a reflecting mirror in which both Dawn and Buffy see
themselves through the other's eyes and do not like or recognize the view the
other has. For Buffy, Dawn is the
baby of the family who is irresponsible and yet spoiled.
For Dawn, Buffy is the one full of herself for no good reason.
But equally in the other each also sees what they would like to be but
cannot. For Dawn her ambition is to
be grown up - to grasp responsibilities and to show how valued she should be.
For Buffy there is the attraction of irresponsibility, of being the
protectee not the protector:
Buffy: "So then my mom goes off
on me about how I'm supposed to watch out for Dawn and make sure that she's
shielded from something that might upset her."
Riley: "Like dead
shopkeepers."
Buffy: "She didn't see him! A
foot, maybe. A dead foot, which is bad, okay, but hello, I see dead stuff *all*
the time, and you don't see Mom shielding me."
But
the sad thing here is that despite the fact that each sees in the other's
situation
a reflection of what they would like for themselves, each also
only
sees the "easy" side of that situation.
For Dawn it is the admiration
Dawn
has. Neither is prepared to see the
other's situation for what it really
is.
And it is really because of this they prove that the other's picture
of
them is closer to the truth than each might like to concede.
The way
that
Dawn invited Harmony into her house and then ran outside where she could be
kidnapped and in the process put Anya's life at risk proves that she isn’t
grown up. This is not someone who
is ready for responsibility. Similarly in her righteous indignation Buffy is
willing to make no allowances for Dawn's age:
Riley: "Well, yeah. You're like
her idol, Buffy."
Buffy: "Her idol? I don't think so, unless you like to spill things
on your
Riley: "You know what I mean. You
have super powers ... and college ... a studly yet sensitive boyfriend... "
Buffy: "And a pesky life-or-death
job that I can't quit or even take a break from."
Riley: "She doesn't get the
sacrifices. She's a kid."
As
Riley noted here Buffy betrays the fact that Dawn is right about her being
way
too into herself to see things from her point of view.
This
is an all too recognizable picture of the conflicts and misunderstandings
inherent
in growing up. It also shows just
how successfully you can establish
parallels
between the supernatural and the real world. There was of course
a
degree of exaggeration in Dawn's "saving the world is no big deal"
attitude
or
Buffy's "I have to save the world and she gets in my way" attitude
when
compared with the more mundane concerns of real life.
But it is this
exaggeration
that allows the writers to draw out more clearly the points
about
real world family relationships they want to make.
And it is such
an
appropriate use of metaphor in this context precisely because Dawn, in
a
way that paralleled the experiences of teenagers, was now trying to find
As
I have already said it was important for the writers that they establisha
relationship between Dawn and Buffy because it was through that relationship
that they intended us to understand the
dynamic between them - how they acted and reacted to one another.
And the important point in this respect is that they were sisters.
Except they weren’t. To have shown them full of natural love and
affection at this stage would have rung completely false.
But to show them as having the normal antagonistic relationship
that sisters can have is to suggest the love and affection that underlies
the mutual jealousy. We get a sense of that in the following conversation between
Riley and Buffy over Dawn's invitation to Harmony:
Riley: "She's just a kid."
Buffy: "You know, will everybody
please stop saying that? I was just a kid when I met my first vampire, but
somehow, I still managed to remember the rules."
Riley: You had to. It was your job.
Buffy: "No. No, it was common
sense. But nobody expects even that much from Dawn, do they? No, she has to be
protected and coddled from the big bad world, well you know what? We are doing
nothing but turning her into a little idiot who is going to get us all killed.
She just has to be more careful. Now, I can't be there to protect her 24 hours a
day. I-I just can't."
Here
Buffy's expression of concern is more effective than any number of "you're
my sister and I love you" speeches. This
not only makes Buffy's reaction when Dawn is kidnapped entirely understandable.
It sets the scene for the entire arc to follow.
Of
course I have to add that the credibility of this sisterly relationship
depended
upon more than this introduction to it. At
this stage we did not
know
who Dawn really was or how she had come into Buffy's life. In particular
at
this stage we were dealing with a strange anomalous figure who featured
in
just this one episode. Nor had we a
clue as to how far reaching the implications of her presence would be.
The success of the writers ideas on all of thesefeatures depended on
whether they could be sustained for the long term and at this stage the jury was
obviously still out. But I thought that this
The Other Members of the Scooby Gang
The
idea of the difference between reality and perception is also exploited
very
nicely in the way that Dawn reacts to the other members of the Scooby
gang.
For example, she thinks Willow is "awesome".
The fact that she and
"They do spells and stuff, which
is so much cooler than slaying."
Again
this perception has far more to do with what Dawn would like to do
and
be than it does with who Willow really is.
Far from being cool she is
the
usual mass of insecurities and dependency on others.
So, when Buffy
tells
her she is going to stop Drama classes, Willow's preoccupation is with
Willow: "Drama is just Tuesday
and Thursday afternoons. You can blow off training Tuesday and Thursday
afternoons, can't you?"
Buffy: "What happened to
"people gotta respect a work ethic"?"
Willow: "Other people, not me!
There's a whole best friend loophole."
In
contrast to her unenthusiastic view of Riley, Xander picks up points because he
is so different from Buffy. In
particular Dawn in impressed by the fact that:
"Xander treats everyone like an
equal. He doesn't look down on people. "
In
other words he was, in his treatment of Dawn, the polar opposite of Buffy.
He wasn't always treating her like a
child. So for Dawn that
made Xander
"Xander is so much cuter than
anyone. And smarter too. He totally skipped college and got a job working
construction. Which is so kind of ... deep, you know? He builds things. And he's
brave too."
Of
course here again we see the gap between image and reality as we see Xander in
typical "goofy" mode as he promises Joyce that he and Dawn will be
good:
"We're just gonna play with
matches, run with scissors, take candy from ...
some guy ... I don't know his name."
But
because Dawn has this picture of
Xander she sees her own adulthood reflected in him:
"Sometimes when he looks at me, I
feel like he sees me as I am...as a woman."
Of
course none of this adds very much to our knowledge of either Willow or Xander.
But as humorous illustrations of aspects of their characters it
works,
mainly because Dawn is new to them.
Because we see Xander and Willow through her eyes we too look at them in
a fresh light and can perhaps more clearly appreciate things we might otherwise
have taken for granted.
However
it is not only adolescents that are insecure and worry about their
place.
We see similar concerns in both Tara and Giles.
There was a very
Buffy: "Giles, are you breaking
up with your car?"
Giles: "Well, it did seduce me,
all red and sporty."
Buffy: "Little two-door
tramp."
Giles: "I-I-I don't know, I just - I was so at loose ends, I-I found
myself
Buffy: "Shallow?"
But
all of this unhappiness and uncertainty vanish when he sees Willow and
"Ooh, they haven't seen my new
car."
The
car is, if you like, Giles' way if demonstrating to himself that he is
not just a clapped out old banger but an up-to date, smart and sophisticated
"I'm not sure how old he is, but
I heard him use the word "newfangled" one time. So he's gotta be
pretty far gone."
Again
therefore we see the way in which we want others to see the real us through the
image we project.
Tara
too is full of insecurity. When the
gang discover Mr Bogarty's body everyone is too busy to worry about Dawn.
So, it is Tara who comes out to talk to her:
"They're gonna be a little while
longer, doing the detective thing. Best non-scoobies like you and me stay out of
the way."
And
later the significance of this remark is brought out in the following
Tara: "It's just ... I, I think
it's tough for her, not being able to ...
well, allowed to, you know, help."
Willow: "Help?"
Tara: "Oh, you. You guys. The
slayer circle."
Willow: "Well, Buffy doesn't
really need ... a-and I think Dawn's a little
young."
Tara: "I-I know, you're right.
It's just hard. That outsider feeling.".
Willow: "Tara ... you're not an
outsider."
Tara: "Well, yeah. I kinda
am."
Just
as Dawn in trying to find her way in a situation that was new and difficult
for
her to deal with, so too was Tara. Her
relationship with Willow was
itself
new enough but more importantly she was as a newcomer thrust in the
middle
of a well established team. Hence
her instinctive empathy with Dawn.
Hence also her evident concern
when Willow referred to her as one of the
the
fact that it didn't did suggest that all was not quite what it seemed
with
Tara and that with her too there was a difference between perception
Plot
I
can be reasonably brief here because quite frankly I have no other choice.
The
plot in this episode is vanishingly thin. The
writers obviously decided
other
explanation for making Harmony the principal criminal mastermind and
her
minions a correspondingly stupid and weak willed bunch.
Having done
that
all the usual ingredients of good drama - excitement and uncertainly
-
are going to be in short supply. There
was a good deal of compensation
for
this though. In particular it
allowed the writers to use the overall
theme
of the episode to good effect by playing around with the differences
between
perceptions of the vampire gang and
the reality. So the brutal
Willow:
"Well, I've cross-checked the inventory list, and things are definitely
missing.
Mostly books. Including: Treatise on the Mythology and Methodology
Buffy:
"Oh, shoot! Was that the only copy?"
Giles:
"Come on, Buffy, this could be very serious. Whoever's leading this
This
gives the impression that a new and formidable enemy is going to challenge the
slayer. Then the discovery that a
missing item is a cheap and tacky statue leads
to the discovery that the gang leader is Harmony.
She of course has a plan. That plan is spoken of with love and awe and it
is going to be put into effect tonight. But
again things are not what they seem and we quickly find out that this brilliant
strategem is to stand outside Buffy's house and dare her to come out and fight.
And finally in the confrontation between Harmony and Spike we see her
opinion of herself:
"You just can't stand the fact
that I'm my own person now. There comes a time in every woman's life when she
realizes she needs to take the next step. I've taken it. I've found the real
me... and I like her."
But
once more reality intrudes. Far
from being the leader she thinks she is forced to stealing Spike's (somewhat
obvious) idea and then having kidnapped Dawn we see that Harmony is too stupid
and unimaginative to kill her even though there is no reason not to - simply
because it wasn't in the plan.
These
were all very nice touches. They
were great fun and entirely in keeping
with
the main theme of the episode. But
there were just too few of these
for
comfort. Most of the first half
dragged. Virtually nothing happened
that
advanced the plot and many of the scenes in which there was some theme or
character development were spun out or repetitive.
So, for example, we had three or four different scene in which the same
point was made – Dawn was self centered and irresponsible and Buffy was fed up
with it. This was the theme
explored in the scene in the training room, the breakfast room,
when
Joyce asked Buffy to take her to get school supplies, when Buffy and
was
coming a mile away. Dawn
running out of the house and into the hands
of
a kidnapper, Anya's brave but unsuccessful attempt at a rescue, Buffy
beating
Spike up until he told her where Harmony was, the mutiny by the underlings and
Buffy's arrival in the nick of time - all of this was plotting strictly
Overview
8/10
(B): This episode revolved around an interesting and intelligent idea.
The writers drew a parallel between
Dawn's situation and that of teenagers generally.
In doing so they focused on the difference between perception
feel
misunderstood. Thus they were once
again able to use the supernatural
as
a metaphor and at the same time advance the arc by introducing Dawn's
character
and showing how she was now to relate to the other Scoobies and
especially
Buffy. But the context in which
they did this was a little too
light
for my taste. There is no reason
why highly effective comedy cannot
be
blended with real tension and threat. BBB
was the classic example of
this
in BUFFY as was "Sense and Sensitivity" in ANGEL. And without some
