Slayer, Crone, Addict

Addiction has been a common theme in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Vampires are addicted to blood; Riley was addicted to passion and blood houses; Willow is addicted to magic. There is no doubt that addiction is evident in the show, but what about the slayer? In the episodes addressed in this blog, we see Buffy as the crone and the first slayer (“Bargaining Part Two”), but we also see her as an addict.

Previously in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Spike informed Buffy that the secret obsession of every slayer is death, specifically her own death. Whether it is killing demons, determining the role of the slayer as killer, fulfilling her duty by stopping the death of innocents, or hating the life that has been returned to her, this obsession has become an addiction for Buffy. She cannot let go of her relationship with death, even when given the opportunity, which Dawn offers her.

This is an addiction that has been passed down since the first slayer. In “Restless,” we see that the first slayer is so obsessed with her relationship with death that there is no room in her life for anything else; it all falls beneath addiction, and she expects all slayers to follow in her footsteps. This addiction gets in the way of the slayer’s ability to live, and, as Spike said, it will lead to Buffy’s downfall as it always has in the slayers before her. It causes her to be reckless, and, now that she is unable to accept life and become attached to the things within it, there is nothing keeping her from her death wish, which though it has lost its curiosity seems to have grown all the stronger because of her knowledge of the afterlife.