There is no spell

[partofyourworld]

At the end of Faith Hope and Trick(i think thats the one) Giles says that there is no spell to barracade the statue/demon thing( you got wat im saying??)
Anyway, im really confused about this.. Did Giles use the spell as a way to get Buffy to open up about what happened? Or was there some reason that it wouldnt work because Angel was cured? I have heaps of theories but cunfusion ensues...
HELP

[ILLYRIAN]

That was about Buffy stopping the world from ending [again]. By 'killing' Angel.
Saying there was a spell that needed doing was just Giles's way of getting Buffy to talk about what she had done and not bottle it up inside.

[Wanabee-slayer]

I think Giles kind of guessed that Buffy wasn't telling him everything. And as sad as it was, I think the truth about Angel's death was slowly eating away at Buffy. Giles made up the spell so that he could get Buffy to open up about her feeling and about what really happened. I think by this point Giles already loved Buffy and it hurt him to see her so upset.

[Keanoite]

Giles knew that Buffy was hiding something and needed to get it out. I agree that it was eating away at her. I wonder sometimes if Buffy would have ever snapped out of her funk if Angel hadn't come back. I think it would have haunted her to death.

[partofyourworld]

Thanx all. i had guessed that but i wanted to make sure before telling everyone about it.

[Airam]

Wait really?! Is this the general consensus? Cause i never saw it that way. Its hard for me to believe that had there really not been a ritual that Giles had to perform that he would have kept incessantly pestering her for all the gory details. I think that if he had wanted her to open up he would have found a more sensitive way to get her to open up. Cause i mean the types of questions he'd ask her were all very by the book, procedural type questions about the fight. And I think when she finally had enough of all the questions and she told him that he had his soul Giles was genuinely shocked, like he hadn't expected any kind of admission along those lines. I think he really needed to do a ritual but upon finding out that Angel had recovered his soul the point was moot because the ritual was only neccesary if Angel was evil, Angelus.

Am I crazy or did anyone other than me see it this way... I had never seen this speculated on before... hmm guess your eyes open up to a new Buffyverse debate every day :p

[buffbot23]

I believe that is it, I just re-watched this epi today and as we all know Giles is like a father figure to Buffy and he knew something was bothering her. Esp, when Scott gave her the ring.
I love it though, I think that is an amazing scene and if you watch Willows reaction she gets it as well.

[Airam]

She gets what? What I took from the look on Willow's face was also shock and concern b/c she found out something that had been very painful to her friend... to me that is no way evidence that Giles was making up the ritual all along because he had suspiscion that there was something Buffy wasn't telling him. This is seriously tripping me out... it all is just speculation especially since we the audience were never given any evidence or bit of dialogue that would lead us top conclude that Giles was making that up for coersion purposes.

[ItMustBeBunnies]

Mmmm when I was a kid this always stumped me too but when I watch it these days I agree with the idea that it was Giles tring to get her to open up and not bottle what she was feeling. Mabye he could have gone about it in a better way but it did work, it helped her let go in a way.

[Lindsey McDonald]

He went about it in the only way that would actually have gotten Buffy to talk. No matter how father-figure-esque Giles was to Buffy, he was not her father. Their relationship hadn't developed to the point where she would tell him anything (like, say, the end of Season 6 when he comes back). If he'd sat down with her and been all sensitive, she'd have felt uncomfortable. If even Willow hadn't gotten it out of her like that, Giles knew it wasn't an option. So he fell back on his duties as a watcher. He was "just doing his job". Buffy might feel uncomfortable answering the questions, but since it was all business it forced an honesty out of her while she had her guard down. There was no spell. He kept up the pretence with Buffy to the end, but as soon as she left, he admitted it to Willow. He helped Buffy, without her even knowing, and he lied to do it. It's classic Giles!

[Spirit_Of_Fred]

finding quote evidence? im on it! :)

well, number one, i think he'd be excited to bore her with details, normally, contrary to what he says here :p:

GILES
-- and difficult spell.
(to Buffy)
It involves creating a protective
circle around... I don't want to bore
you, but there's a litany that one
recites in Aramaic. It's very
specific, and I need to know a few
things about your experience in
defeating Acathla and Angel.

and the the biggie :D:

WILLOW
Giles? I know you don't like me
playing with the mystical forces, but
I really could help with the binding spell.

GILES
There is no spell.

[fly on the wall]

The calm, knowing way Giles says "There is no spell" gives it away: He made the whole thing up.
Being technical was the only way he could have gotten Buffy to open up. Buffy feels she has to be strong all the time; I doubt she would have shown weakness if he'd have sat her down and asked her sympathetically what happened. But by making it seem by-the-book, a procedure, part of her job, he was able to get it out of her.
Her friends didn't suspect there was anything more to the Angel story than what Buffy had told them, but Giles knew (just as he knew S6 that all was not right in Buffyland, yet again). Giles often seems to have far more insight into Buffy than anyone else. He knew that the spell had worked - based on what happened to Willow and the orb in the hospital - and I'm sure he knew it couldn't have worked if Angel was already gone. He also knew exactly how to get it off Buffy's chest. Giles is a pretty smart guy. :)

[AvatarofTruth]

This is one of my favorite Giles moments. Balancing his role as watcher and father figure (a role in this episode he has yet to fully admit) through the cunning use of volume-y texts.

[Airam]

Hmmm... well damn, I guess I am all on my own on how I percieved it. After reading everyone's post I can now see how he could have been using it as a way to get her to open up... its just odd for me cause in the 10 years since first seeing this episode that is just not ever the way I percieved it. Maybe I just wasn't big into overanalyzing back then so I took at it face value and the way I saw it was that when Giles responded to Willow's request to help with, "there is no spell," what he meant was "there is no spell [because Angel regained his soul and so the spell is no longer neccesary]." I always just viewed Giles' pestering her for details of the battle because there was a spell he needed to perform as a plot device to clue Giles and the scoobies in as to what really happened, that Angel had in fact gotten his soul back. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and rewatch that scene and the Giles/ Buffy scenes preceding it but i still think it is left rather vague and it really could be either one although I guess I can accept that its most likely the more complex explanation of Giles using it to coax Buffy to talk about it...

Man, I hate being (semi) wrong

:p

[sk73]

I thought there was a spell until Giles tells Willow that there is no spell.
And by that turn it all around making it one of greatest moments in Buffy. Great stuff.

/SK

[BASBritt]

I loved how Giles essentially tricked Buffy into telling him what happened. I think by getting her to do that, it helped him to understand, too, why she felt she needed to get out of Sunnydale, and he could kind of grasp why she was so tormented.

[Fusions2]

I didn't even realise Giles was tricking her just so she would open up about what really happened. I just assumed that he meant that there was no spell because of how Angel was killed and his soul was back meaning the spell wouldm't work. I think I'll have to watch this episode to see how that is all really played out now.

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

i think iwas slightly annoyed with what giles did. i mean, sure buffy was bottling it up, but it was a big something, and to trick someone to talk about something so..whats the word...traumatizing is kind of mean.

[BASBritt]

I wasn't annoyed with him at all for doing what he did. I think he knew the only real way she'd be able to move on is if she talked about it and got it out there about what really happened.

[IdiotJed]

He knew the only way to get it out of her was through this method. At this point, he was more the watcher as opposed to the father figure. Buffy perhaps wouldn't have opened up to him if he'd acted all... fatherly. Acting as a watcher made her open up her true feelings and in a sense let her move on a bit.

[Fake Shemp]

i liked it, and im glad they didnt wallow in it on the show (theres so much in this show that if it was on another show would take forever to come out or actually happen)

[Xin Rong]

I always thought it was fairly clear that there really wasn't any spell and Giles was using it as a way to get buffy to talk about what happened...