Into the Labyrinth

[chani]

I've been thinking of season 4 because of a discussion about Ethan Rayne being trustworthy or not on rayne_n_chaos  , and I realized that the theme of the labyrinth was there from the first episode to the finale. It is the leitmotiv of season 4.

 Here is how it came in my mind. You know I'm seeking connections everywhere and I tend to think that most of the pairings in BTVS echoe famous couples, reviving old Myths or relationships from literature. I am not sure that the writers always did it on purpose, but some connections are obvious. I pointed out how Buffy/Angel called "Lolita" to mind in season 2 (and of course there was the Beauty and the Beast connection in s 3), and you must know my theory about Spuffy being a modern version of "Tristan and Isolde". I'd like to ramble on "Madame Butterfly" for both Buffy/Angel and Willow/Oz because I'm going to the see it at the opera on Saturday but that would lead us too far from the labyrinth stuff.

 So I was thinking of Ethan, and of course my inner Giles/Ethan 'shipper was lurking.

In "A New Man", at the beginning of the episode, Giles compared himself to Theseus. Of course it was funny because during the episode, Giles did turn into a new Asterios, the minotaur, as a Fyarl demon, but there was more...Bingo! If Giles was Theseus, Ethan was Ariadne. And actually it works.

Ariadne was as tricky as our Chaos mage. She gave Theseus a clew to deal with the labyrinth and Ethan gave Giles infos from the demons world, the number 314, to deal with The Initiative.

To follow Ariadne's thread is a way to travel into the unknown and to find a way BACK. It's exactly what Ethan keeps trying to give Giles in my opinion. Since "Halloween" he'd been trying to make Giles recall who he used to be, to take Giles back to Ripper.
Theseus deserted Ariadne, he abandoned her on an island and eventually married her sister, Phaedra! Just like Giles left Ethan and the dark ages for the Council Order (that also represents a magic world). And once more Giles abandoned Ethan in A New Man, leaving him into the hands of the Initiative guys.

So we have already 2 labyrinths. A labyrinth is a place where people get lost, a place that causes chaos and where a monster lies. First the University campus.

Giles: These--these halls are quite the labyrinth. I felt like Theseus and the Minotaur in the . . . labyrinth. (A New Man)

But from her first day at college, Buffy was completely lost, asking for directions. And of course there was that scene in "The Freshman"

Buffy: Me?  Oh, no, no, I'm just going to Fischer Hall.  Which I know is on the Earth planet.  Recently voted 'Most Pathetic.' Uh-huh.
Eddie: Hmm, well, I'm lost and I have a map.  (He holds it up.) So...
Buffy: Ooh, I come in second.  I'm Buffy, by the way.
Eddie: Eddie.
Buffy: Ok, so... (They both study the map.)  That's Fischer Hall, right?
Eddie: Ok, and this is Dunwirth Building, that's my dorm... it's just... it's us I can't find.
Buffy: Are we the blue part?
Eddie: No... yes!
Buffy: Ok, right, so I-I came from there, then we just wanna go that way (She points.) to the bike path.
Eddie: You sound very certain, I'm in.

So college was definitely a labyrinth!

But there was another one, hidden beneath the first one: The Intitiative. And that one did hide a monster, Adam.

This time, it's Spike who can't find his way BACK. Of course it's twisted, because Spike wants to go in not out.

In "Something Blue", there's a scene showing the usual disorientation caused by a labyrinth.

Spike: Hang.. hang on, this— this is it. Wait.. no.. yes.

Buffy: What are you talking about?

Spike: The lab. Commando lab. The door was right here where I escaped.

(He gestures to the ground which is covered with grass, no sign of a door of any kind. Just a lawn.)

Buffy: (Incredulous) I don't think so.

(Spike falls to his
hands and knees, tearing at the ground)

Spike: Open up! I'm gonna kill
you!

Buffy: Spike, there's nothing there.

Spike: Let me in!

Later in "Primeval"...even Riley no loner knows where he is.

Riley: Where are we?

Adam: In the Initiative.  There are areas no one knew about beyond those that needed to.  Mother kept her secrets well.

And eventually we got the third labyrinth, the one that is inside of our head, in "Restless". And there was a monster lurking in that one too, The First Slayer.

It's in Xander's dream that the labyrinth is the most obvious, because he can't escape and despite running away from rooms to rooms, he's stuck and keeps coming back to his basement.

In Buffy's dream, it's more subtle. First time is going wonky, as Tara points out by saying that the clock doesn't work. And There are dreams within dreams. Besides in her dream, Buffy mentioned an old dream she shared with Faith (in season 3)and in which they made a bed. Later she seems to have escaped the dream and the fight agains the First Slayer in the desert, we can see her waking up on the floor but actually she's still dreaming! Finding a way back is hard.

In her dream, Buffy walks a lot (with a close-up on her sandaled feet)which is the destiny of someone stuck in a labyrinth, until she finds herself in a desert. The desert is another form of labyrinth. You aren't stuck between walls, but you get lost as well, because there is nothing that more looks like a dune or a bush than another dune or another bush, and the wind erases the tracks.

But sometimes, in order to find yourself you have to get lost first. That was actually Buffy's journey until season 7.

There's a labyrinth sleeping inside of us, obscure, patient, ready to devour from beneath...

Every character was alternately Theseus the walker/warrior and deserter/quitter, Daedalus the labyrinth-maker, Asterios the devouring monster.

From The Greeks to Lewis Carroll to Kafka to Jorge Luis Borges to Joss, the labyrinth has been a wonderful archetype of all things chaos, a symbole of the matrix, of the potential stuff around, of alternate roads, of confusing matters and intriguing symmetries, like a little sister popping up and changing the world, two slayers shifting body...It's all about the journey, in a labyrinth more than in anywhere else.

The writing itself got us conned more than once, misleading us, spreading red-herrings. BTVS was our labyrinth and we're still keeping on finding its clues here on LJ and boards.