#loneliness as an expression of total detachment from other people is a separate issue from the romantic loneliness that i see.

[knifearo]

i say it all the time but being aromantic fucking rocks actually. loneliness is one thing but being aro + romance averse had me confront the amatonormative expectation of romantic partnering and you know what i'm NOT worried about now? having a partner. sharing a bed with someone. kissing someone. being held by someone. cause all those physical + emotional needs can be fulfilled by all the people i hold dear in my life and it is no loss of mine to not have a partner. and it's so radical and empowering to say that i don't care and i don't fucking want one! i like being by myself! I HOPE I DIE ALONE ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

[herinsectreflection]

Entropy is actually a great episode that I don’t think gets enough attention. I totally understand why - it is sandwiched between Normal Again with its unusual concept and Seeing Red with its huge plot events. It’s a connective tissue episode that doesn’t have much of a standalone plot - it’s more concerned with dealing with the fallout from previous episodes (specifically the Xander/Anya and Spike/Buffy relationships de facto ending in As You Were and Hells Bells), and setting up the events of the next episode. But its actually one of my favourite episodes from this stretch of S6.

I think it does a fantastic job as expressing the core themes of the season. That starts with the title. The idea of entropy: the inevitable drifting apart of all things and decline into disorder, is key to the season. That is what we have been seeing all year - the Scoobies drifting away from each other, all hurting and struggling but unable to connect with each other. That is also in many ways an inevitable part of adulthood in this world, where we so often drift apart from people we were close to before, becoming increasingly alienated and detached from community.

This season tracks that theme heavily, through the Scoobies not knowing about Buffy being in heaven, to Xanya keeping their engagement a secret (and their fears about marriage secret from each other), through all Willow's issues, through Dawn's loneliness, etc, etc. There's a reason the season concludes with two people reconnecting and empathising through shared experiences. It is to remind us that even when we feel at our most isolated and pained, we are not alone in feeling that way. We are united by our collective loneliness.

But before that healing can take place, we have this episode, which is arguably the peak of these characters being separated from each other. All three couples of the season are split up, and the people who are still friends are keeping secrets from each other. Xander gets a lot of flack in this episode, and I kind of think that's fair - his actions do come across as being weirdly possessive over Buffy's sex life. But their conversation in Seeing Red casts it into a more sympathetic light for me, framing his hurt as not due to the fact that she was sleeping with Spike, but that she didn't share a part of her life with her best friends. That's understandably upsetting, and it fits with this theme of people drifting apart.

In this sea of entropy, it is inevitable that people will cling indiscriminately to each other. This is what happens with Anya and Spike. It makes perfect sense that they would grab at any brief connection - they both have a habit of latching on to people very quickly and very strongly. Anya is kindof filling the role of Buffy in this episode, using Spike as a comfort fuck. Which is fair enough. People need to get comfort where they can. But even that comfort can end up hurting other people, and so you end up even more alone. There's no ill will there - Anya says herself ("That wasn't vengeance.. That was solace.") - but actions have consequences. It might just be solace with one other lonely person, but others may still be hurt by this.

In a way, that's kind of reassuring. The fact that Xander and Buffy are both hurt by Anya and Spike's connection reminds us that none of these people are in fact alone. It's significant that at the point that Anya and Spike believe they are alone, they are in fact literally being observed by seven other people, several of whom feel the emotional impact of their connection. They cannot avoid having an impact on others. As human beings were are inevitably interconnected, and everything we do affects the people around us, even if we feel completely alone, and the same goes for spurned demons.

That's the messy, ugly, oddly uplifting message that Entropy leaves us with, which is what S6 does at its best. It shows how these characters, drifting apart on emotional islands, still clumsily connect, unavoidably impacting each other. And Willow and Tara's reuniting reminds us that this is always a choice. We can choose to bridge these gaps and connect with each other. We can't choose what happens after that, but that's another story.