Seeing Red (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Plot

After making up, Tara tells Willow that her hunch about Buffy and Spike sleeping together was correct, and that Buffy feels embarrassed about it. Though stung by the secret, Willow pushes her feelings aside, remembering Buffy's struggles. When Buffy sneaks into the Trio's hideout, she finds it empty and rigged with traps; she grabs a few things and barely escapes as giant saw blades destroy the building. Anya is supposed to help a young woman who wants to curse her unfaithful boyfriend, but Anya's own romantic troubles keep her from noticing the woman's wish.

Dawn goes to Spike's crypt and confronts him, saying she knows about his affairs with both Anya and Buffy, and scolds him for hurting Buffy despite claiming to love her. Meanwhile, in a cave, the Trio kills a large Nezzla demon guarding the Orbs of Nezzla'khan. Warren and Andrew force Jonathan to wear the dead demon's skin so he can cross a magical barrier, and while he retrieves the orbs, the other two plot against him. Warren tests the orbs by easily killing another demon.

When Xander learns Buffy slept with Spike, he is horrified and storms off after arguing with her, heading to The Bronze. The Trio arrive there, and Warren, now supercharged, flirts with a former classmate's girlfriend. When her boyfriend steps in, Warren beats him and several others with ease, tossing Xander aside when he tries to intervene. Later, Buffy, badly hurt from patrol, starts a bath.

Spike enters without invitation and tries to persuade her that she loves him. He forces himself on her, but her injured back allows her to barely stop him. Spike is immediately horrified and tries to apologize, but Buffy knows he only stopped because she made him. He runs off before Xander finds his coat on the stairs and then discovers Buffy on the bathroom floor with a large bruise on her leg.

Xander is about to chase Spike when Willow and Tara arrive, telling Buffy they found plans showing the Trio intend to steal a large sum of money. After Xander warns her about Warren's new strength, Buffy rushes off to stop them.

Writing

The episode underscores the fallout of characters' choices, with Spike taking time to tell Dawn that his and Anya's actions were wrong. This marks the sole occasion Amber Benson, who plays Tara, appears in the opening credits, and it is also the episode where her character dies. Joss Whedon had long planned to kill off a major figure the first time they joined the main title sequence; he originally wanted Eric Balfour, who portrayed Jesse in the first two episodes, added to the credits for surprise, but budget issues stopped that.

Whedon believed Tara’s death was essential for Willow’s arc, since only such a loss could unleash her dark powers with full force. Tara had grown popular with viewers, so Whedon and writer David Fury decided her death would provoke a strong reaction, which Whedon considered the right move. He was not ready for how intensely fans responded; many were so distressed they quit watching. Because the death followed a scene where Willow and Tara were shown in bed after sex, critics charged Whedon with suggesting that lesbian intimacy should lead to death, a common trope in movies.

The production team received a flood of mail, especially from women, expressing anger, sadness, and frustration. Writer and producer Marti Noxon found some of the letters too upsetting to read, but she viewed the outcry as a natural result of television having few strong female role models and no lesbian representation at the time.