The Deleted Buffy/Giles scene in "Lies My Parents Told Me"

I know I might be the late-est person, and you guys probably already read this, but I this is my first time reading the script, and I think it is absoutely brilliant. It is also crucial as well, I'm so not understanding why they didnt include this. It would have fixed the problem of many fans, who thought that Giles was out of character, and that Buffy and Giles' fall out wasn't EXCLUSIVELY about Spike. Then again, this very well could NOT be the actual scene, but it's fascinating to read none the less.

from itsinthetrees.tumblr.com


BUFFY
Exactly. The First's doing this. Spike's innocent.

Giles pauses a moment, then:

GILES
So was Ben.

Buffy stops cold. The Vamp launches at her and she WHIP-STAKES him to DUST.

BUFFY
Ben?

GILES
(with difficulty)
He was a human being, after all. Forced, his whole life, to share his mortal form with a demi-god from a hell-dimension.

BUFFY
Glory. I know. What does that have to do"”

GILES
Ben was oblivious to the atrocities Glory committed. No more responsible for her crimes than Spike is to his, when triggered.

SLOW PUSH IN as he continues"¦

GILES (cont'd)
Glory was invincible, impossible to kill"¦ Ben was not. So after you defeated her. After you left Ben lying there. Alive. I made a decision. One that you couldn't.

BUFFY
Giles"¦

GILES
I put my hand over his mouth. And as he struggled, weakly"¦ I smothered him. Because it had to be done. (looks at Buffy) He was a liability.

Buffy's eyes go wide as she starts to put it together.

BUFFY

Oh god"¦ You've been stalling me. Keeping me away"”

GILES
Buffy, it's time to stop playing the role of a general and start being one.

Buffy stares at him in shock, then turns and runs"¦

GILES (cont'd)
(calls after her)
This is the way wars are won!

As filmed, the scene skips over all the Ben stuff, directly from Buffy saying "Spike's innocent" to Giles saying "He's a liability." The scene then continues ith "Oh God, you've been stalling me. Keeping me away"”"

Oh wow... I had never read that before. I really wish they would have left it the way it is here instead of cutting all that out. It would have made Giles seem a lot less evil.

I think I heard this somewhere. I forget where though. But I remember that they cut out, because they thought no one would remember or care. Lol. Little did they know, right? I wish they would've done it. Not because of the fallout issue, but because this, like the Xander "kick his ass" thing, went completely unresolved. It really bothered me.

Thanks for putting the transcript here. It would have made a huge difference, truly.
Actually I believe it was Joss himself, who said in the commentary that he omitted it because "nobody cares about Ben, in season 7." But the parallels there were crucial; if Giles really was acknowledging that Spike was innocent then I think that the relationship would be on better grounds, and certainly I'd have felt better about him that season, (though ultimately I can't forgive him for his decision).

In any case, if it was Joss who decided to delete the scene, I think it was truly one of his biggest mistakes.

I heard something about this on the commentary....I think the decision not to include it was based on the thinking that the Ben thing was two seasons ago and therefore no longer relevant. Personally I disagree.

Dang... what a stupid decision to leave it out. Would have mellowed my frustration with Giles' development from mid-S6 onward a lot.

I've never read this before, but I think it would have been vital to see. I wish it were kept. I think it would have made Buffy see Giles in a truly different light.

It would have nicely tied the seasons together too.

Should of definitely been left in!!!!!!!!!!!

I've always wished that Joss would have restored some of these great deleted scenes into the disc sets, giving us a "Director's Cut" program the way that some other series have done (The "Highlander" series included an additional five or more minutes in each episode, scenes that were shortened or cut entirely to make time for commercials) and of course include at least some of the blooper scenes. From some reason, he just refuses to do anything like that, despite how popular it would have been with the fans. Even now, I would feel safe in saying that quite a few, if not most, of us would buy the entire series all over again just to get those extras.

as everyone has said, this seems CRUCIAL to me. giles was always one of my favourite characters and i just could not stand what they did to him in season 7. it just...wasn't giles.
this scene would have definitely put a new spin on/softened the blow of giles' actions here. huge mistake not to leave it in--the throwback would have been awesome and fans most definitely do care about connecting the seasons.

I was going to say that this doesn't make Giles less cruel, but reading the script again, I missed the obvious; Giles felt very guilty about what he did. More so than he needed, since Ben wasn't oblivious. He could have shoot himself(pressumingly).

This would have added a lot to a beloved character who had gotten neglected. And while I agree that the average fan might feel lost or indifferent, our die hard fans would have wanted that scene.

I think Joss once said that he'd rather make a show that a hundred people needed to watch, than a show a thousand people liked to watch. I really wish he had stuck to that principle and kept the scene for those fans that needed to watch the show. If you know what I mean.

After all is said, however, the thing that was never pointed out, at least on screen to Buffy, was the fact that the whole plot to kill Spike was initiated, not by Giles, but by Robin Wood, the man who fully admitted that his concern wasn't with any sort of liability or threat that Spike presented to the group. He just wanted "the monster who murdered (his) mother." Granted, Giles had his doubts about Spike, but I believe that more than a small amount of that was his disapproval of any sort of relationship between Spike and Buffy. If those facts had been pointed out at some point, the deleted scene wouldn't have been all that necessary, That might have actually been the reason that Joss decided to delete those few lines. We, the audience, knew the truth. He just assumed that we would see Buffy as knowing the entire story as well.

( I do think, however, that, at some point, Buffy should have found out about Giles killing Ben, if for no other reason than to put a little different perspective on the whole "Faith, you...killed...a MAN!" thing.)

It was a big mistake on Joss part, if he was the one making the decision, to cut this scene. Maybe people didn't care that much about Ben and what happened but it would have given the missing explanation where Giles was coming from where Spike was concerned and his behaviour in general in season seven.

Wow, I never knew about this. I probably wouldnt have been so mad at Giles had they included this.

Well, like about everybody in this thread has said already, they definitely should've kept this in.

This is soo soo interesting - never knew this! DEF should have been included 100%

And wouldnt it have been great for The First to appear as Ben infront of Giles? haaa We had Glory in Lessons (but more Glory would have been amazing) and so having Ben come back too would have been interesting!

🙂

kittenpoker said:

I heard something about this on the commentary....I think the decision not to include it was based on the thinking that the Ben thing was two seasons ago and therefore no longer relevant. Personally I disagree.

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I agree with you for sure. Just because something is 2 years ago doesn't mean it's not relevant. That is something that consistently bothered me throughout Buffy, they never did a very good job of acknowledging the past in a meaningful way. Jesse's death, Xander telling Buffy to "kick his ass," Anya's death, etc...Giles's killed an innocent young man. A potential love interest for Buffy. That is something that shouldn't have been casted aside because it happened 2 years prior.

This reminds me of the scene in "Empty Places" when the scoobies kick Buffy out of the house. The conversation is a lot longer and Giles and Buffy get into it more. Giles even brings up Buffy's decision to act along playing a role in Jenny's death. It's an intense scene that should have been added because it made the reasoning for Buffy leaving a lot more clear.

Wow, interesting. So Giles did tell Buffy about Ben.

Still, though, I don't think it changed Buffy's mind much about Spike and Giles' attempt to get him killed. Buffy still felt betrayed and lied too. Perhaps she understood more fully just how willing Giles was to get rid of all liabilities, but that doesn't change her feelings towards the matter.

Abby27 said:

I agree with you for sure. Just because something is 2 years ago doesn't mean it's not relevant. That is something that consistently bothered me throughout Buffy, they never did a very good job of acknowledging the past in a meaningful way. Jesse's death, Xander telling Buffy to "kick his ass," Anya's death, etc...Giles's killed an innocent young man. A potential love interest for Buffy. That is something that shouldn't have been casted aside because it happened 2 years prior.

This reminds me of the scene in "Empty Places" when the scoobies kick Buffy out of the house. The conversation is a lot longer and Giles and Buffy get into it more. Giles even brings up Buffy's decision to act along playing a role in Jenny's death. It's an intense scene that should have been added because it made the reasoning for Buffy leaving a lot more clear.

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I've never heard that! How'd the scene go?

Dagenspear said:

I've never heard that! How'd the scene go?

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Here's a link to the original shooting script! 🙂

http://www.buffyworld.com/buffy/scripts/141_scri.html