Sorry for the delay in posts. I haven't been around internet since Friday morning.
I keep having to remind myself that this says "best" and not "favorite." So I'd have to go with something from the end of Season 6. I just rewatched "Villains," "Two to Go," and "Grave" in an attempt to determine which of these three is the best, and I still can't figure it out. So for the first time, I completely refuse to choose. The entire arc of these three episodes shows us so much of who Willow is, where she came from, and who she has come to be. It sums up much of her character arc to this point in the series so incredibly.
"Villains" shows us once again Willow's tendency to use magic to deal with painful situations. Willow reacts to Tara's death by jumping back into the use of magic, and continually uses magic to take action in an attempt to ease the pain of Tara's death.
Before today's rewatch, "Two to Go" seemed an uneventful episode in between the other two. But today, one of Willow's lines stood out to me:
Willow: Let me tell you something about Willow: she's a loser. And she always has been. Everyone picked on Willow in junior high, high school, up until college with her stupid mousy ways and now - Willow's a junkie... The only thing Willow was ever good for - the only thing going for me - were those moments - just moments - when Tara would look at me and I was wonderful. And that will never happen again.
This line is so important to what comes in "Grave." We come to understand, really understand, how Willow sees herself as a character. By the standards of the world, by her own standards, she is nothing. She is worth nothing - undeserving of any sort of love. But Tara loved her for who she was, and that really meant something. For Willow to lose the only person she thought could love her unconditionally meant losing any sense of self-worth. And that is what led her to this point.
The episode "Grave" only makes things worse. We are already well-aware that Willow can't handle pain. When Willow takes the magic from Giles, she is able to feel all the pain in the world. So she once again turns to magic, this time to end the world entirely. But Xander is able to stop her. Why? Because he loves her at her worst. This is where her statement in "Two to Go" becomes important. Her greatest personal pain stems from the fear that no one will love her if they see all her faults. But as she stoops to her lowest point, trying to end the world, Xander still loves her. And she can deal. Because coping with personal pain is somehow always easier when there's someone that loves you standing by your side. Because it's easier to find a sense of self-worth when someone else tells you that you're worth something.
All that said, I have to admit that I wasn't looking forward to writing this post. I've never been as enamored with Willow as many BtVS fans. But watching this three-episode arc reminded me how well Willow's character arc was crafted (minus a few details here and there). And these three episodes are fantastic. If I had to choose a favorite of these three, it would be "Grave," for how it shows other characters. But looking for best, I cannot separate the three because none fully represent as much as all three do together.
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