Is Ignorance Bliss?

In class (and in Grace’s post), we talked about how even through their minds are wiped clean, the character’s basic personalities survive. Buffy does not stop being a hero, Willow doesn’t stop being gay, and Dawn doesn’t stop being a brat. What I found more interesting was not what the Scooby Gang and Spike remembered, but what they didn’t and how they reinvented themselves. The problem begins when Willow attempts to make Buffy and Tara happy again by making them forget their troubles. Yes this makes Willow a bad friend and a terrible girlfriend, although the characters are terrified, they are happy. Like a dream, the spell suspends all the characters problems and allows them to be blissfully unaware of the gaping issues in their lives. Tara falls in love with Willow again, who is not a power-obsessed, magic abuser, but just another person. Buffy has no recollection of her experience in Heaven. She is not depressed at being on Earth, but rather she has found her purpose again. As Joan, Buffy is more like her younger self: brash, energized, and ready to kick vampire butt. Spike reinvents himself as the son of Giles and as Angel: a vampire with a soul who stands with the Slayer to destroy the evil vampires. He believes himself to be the hero, not a sometimes-villain. Spike’s new point of view is supposed to be funny, but it also poignant that Spike is incredibly happy to have a father. In his real life, Spike is woefully alone which is why he keeps returning to Buffy. It is when the spell is broken and real life comes flooding back that the characters feel unhappy. When Buffy’s memory is returned, she stops fighting altogether and gives up being a hero. She curls up on the ground like a terrified child. Tara and Willow break up, leaving Willow a broken shell. Giles leaves Sunnydale and Buffy for, presumably, forever. Whether it is possible or not, the overwhelming unhappiness at the end of the episode begs the question whether the gang would have been happier to remain under the spell.