Grace and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (RBIS)

Yeah, I know, a blog about Buffy, I'm surprised this is about Buffy too.

So, recently I have been reading about, and learning from, and realising the importance of, God's grace. And, as many of you will know, I love seeing Christianity in popular culture. I have previously written a blog on God as seen in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as being one of the reasons I really love the show. If you want to you can read that here.
In that blog I talk a little about an episode in season 4 where Faith (as Buffy) stops some vampires that are taunting God after taking a church hostage. That episode left a big impression on me (I was maybe 9 or 10 when I first saw it). I even visited the church because it's not too far from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA.

Anyway... flash back to now. I'm wondering and thinking about grace in popular culture, and my brain is finding it really hard to find any good examples. Sure, there are examples of forgiveness, thanksgiving, mercy and love in popular culture, but grace... where is grace?

I've been thinking about this for awhile but today my brain hit on something...
Buffy was a show of seven seasons (running from 1997-2003). Season six is almost universally the most hated by Buffy fans. It probably contributed for Sarah's decision to quit playing Buffy as she constantly complained that the new show runners were taking the character of Buffy in a direction that Sarah, having played Buffy for five years at that point, didn't agree with and believed she wouldn't do.

So, at the end of this awful season is the best picture of grace I have seen in popular culture. I hadn't even considered it, because it's a bad season!

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Willow, Buffy's best friend, has become addicted to magic. She attempts to give it up earlier in the season, but then her girlfriend is shot and killed in an attempt to kill Buffy. Willow's grief consumes her and she gives in to her addiction, finding all the magic she can in order to kill the three people responsible (or partially responsible by association) for Tara's death. She is basically Evil Willow (or Dark Witch Willow as the toy of her is called).

Where sin abounds?
So, Willow has gone dark. She has killed Warren, the guy who shot the gun, and she is after the other two. Buffy tries to stop her, and she beats Buffy up, turning against those she loves and who love her in order to get what she wants, in order to fulfil her desire for revenge.

Enter Jesus character No. 1
Giles, Buffy's former mentor, returns imbued with the magic of love (not really called this in the show, but hinted at when it states Willow's power is from a place of grief, pain and vengeance, while Giles' power is from 'the true source of magic'). Giles faces off against Willow, weakening her. He convinces her that she needs to steal his power to be the most powerful, so she does.
Taking Giles' powers weakens him, and he knows he is going to die. His plan was to sacrifice his own life in order to give Willow the good magic, that it might just spark something inside her.

However, Giles' plan doesn't exactly work out. (Unlike actual Jesus who saved us by His finished work on the cross). Willow now has more power than any other mortal has ever had, and she has this added compassion to all her grief power. She feels the grief and pain of the entire world and decides to end the world.

Enter Jesus character No. 2
Willow traps Buffy and her sister Dawn in a bit facing what are sort of like tiny Ents from Lord of the Rings. Root-Ents. So Buffy cannot help.
Instead, Xander, the powerless one of the group, the only one without magic, or teleportation, or enhanced strength etc. comes to face Willow.

Willow has raised this Satanic Temple and is channelling the essence of the earth (I'm guessing) through her and into it. Xander steps in the way and the line is broken.
Willow blasts him out of the way, but he gets back up, breaking the line again.

Xander tells Willow that she is his best friend, and if the world is about to end there is nowhere he would rather be than by the side of his best friend.
She strikes him with her power again. He tells her a story of how she broke a yellow crayon on their first day of school, and how he loved her then, and loves her now in all her black magic power.

She blasts him again, causing gashes to appear in his shirt and on his body.

He tells her he loves her and begins to take steps towards her, repeating that he loves her with every step and every strike.

By the time he is within arms reach she cannot use her powers anymore and is in tears, she hits him, not like a powerful witch but like a scared young girl in her twenties dealing with grief. She collapses into his arms and her hair, which was black as she was evil, becomes its natural red again.

Giles' sacrifice to implant love in Willow, and Xander standing in the way, taking a beating to show how much he loves her, saves the day... and saves Willow too who becomes a full member of the group after some time in England rehabilitating in season seven.

Comparisons to God's grace:
It's hard not to see the parallels with God and His grace there. I cannot believe I missed it for so long.
Giles is willing to die to give the one committing evil a chance at love and to reenter relationship.
Xander is punished for Willow, in order to keep telling her he loves her.
Finally, relationship is restored and Willow joins the team and her friends forgiven, accepted and loved. In the end, the power from love proves to be more powerful than the power of grief and pain, as Willow will be one of the key players that helps save and change the world in the next season.

"Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more."

The episode even has a song as Willow falls into Xander's arm, that as I rewatched I noticed was very Christian. It is the Prayer of St. Francis, sung by Sarah McLachlan.

And, if you want to see the best example of grace I've seen in popular culture, you can see it here.