Season 6 ofBuffy the Vampire Slayeris arguably the series’darkest chapter. The first few episodes see the Scooby Gang resurrecting Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) from the dead only to discover (through song and dance) that she was resting peacefully in heaven. Things only get more bleak from here as Buffy goes to work a miserable job at the Doublemeat Palace, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) breakup, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) leaves Anya (Emma Caulfield Ford) at the altar, and, oh yeah, Spike (James Marsters) attempts to rape Buffy. All of this misery comes to a head during the final few episodes when Tara takes a bullet that’s meant for Buffy, a moment that sends Willow into a tailspin of dark magic and brutal murder.
While there’ssomuch to pick apart here, the death of Tara (just as she and Willow were reconciling, nonetheless) was one of the most shocking and heartbreaking moments of the series. During a roundtable at New York Comic-Con,Candace Kawof The Geeky Waffle asked Benson about the crushing moment in question and how it felt for her to bring Tara back into the fold and continue her story in the new Audible series,Slayers: A Buffyverse Story.
Referring to the famous “Bury Your Gays” trope, Kaw spoke about the “traumatic experience” that so many viewers faced because of Tara’s death. “You know, that kills me,” Benson says, “It kills me that became associated with Tara and Willow.” Hoping to right the wrongs of the past, Tara returns inSlayersfrom a different universe with Benson adding, “I think we were presented with a really cool multiverse world to play in, which allowed us to bring in people and characters that maybe didn’t get their due and maybe give them a better way forward, a better ending, a better sense of closure.” Along with Tara, other killed-offcharactersthat will be heard inSlayersincludeDanny Strong’s Jonathan,Charisma Carpenter’s Cordelia, and Caulfield Ford’s Anya.
Tara’s Fresh Start in ‘Slayers’
Although she’s back in action, Benson teases that the Tara Maclay that audiences reunite with inSlayersis different from the one they tearfullybid adieuto in 2002. “But for me… keeping the good times as part of her as the big sign and then letting her do kind of bad things. We worked really hard to make sure… because the fandom was very damaged by what happened, and I took it personally.” Alluding to what’s to come in the Audible production, Benson adds that while they kept the “trueness” of Tara’s character, “She is tormented, and there’s things going on.” Still, Benson urges audiences to stick with the story, promising, “You’ll have agood experience.”
