Buffy S1 “Prophecy Girl”
02 Aug 2010 4 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Cordelia, Giles, Joyce, Slayer, The Master, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “But I want more. I want to dance with you.”
Buffy: “I don’t care! I don’t care. Giles, I’m 16 years old. I don’t want to die.”
Master: “But prophecies are tricky creatures. They don’t tell you everything.”
Wow. I remember when I first watched the series, I went through the first season really enjoying it, but my clearest memory of this season was that the season finale was so far above the rest of the season. I remember finishing the first season and thinking, “Whoa, this reached a whole new level.” And the next season picked up from that higher level and kept going. Now that I’ve watched it again, this episode is an amazing way to end a season (it almost ended the series since it wasn’t known whether or not a second season would be offered or not), and it’s just a delicate way to develop the characters. Again I say, wow.
Let’s start with Xander. Xander is such a loving character. As the series goes on, I’ll touch on many instances of his compassion, but this episode shows such a clear example. He practices asking out Buffy with Willow, which is really cute. Even the way he asks out Buffy is so sweet (see the aforementioned quote). He is a pure and noble soul, which is pretty hard to find in high school-aged guys. But, of course, Buffy and Xander are not relationship material. We all know that, but Xander doesn’t yet. He puts himself out there, incredibly vulnerable, and then he’s shot down. He’s clearly disappointed and heartbroken, but even though Buffy rejected him, he still takes the initiative to round up his ‘enemy’, Angel, and look for Buffy — which ultimately saves Buffy! Xander is the sensitive soul who’s emotions fuel his actions, and that’s something I can relate to.
Next is Willow. Willow’s been growing in many ways this entire season. She started off as the dorkiest of the dorks, with no social skills and no fashion know-how. She’s found her place in the Buffy gang as the super smart technological girl. She no longer lets bullies, like Cordelia, walk all over her; she stands up and fights back in her own way. She’s helped fight demons and vampires, but she wasn’t ready for what happens in this episode. As she and Cordelia are walking into the AV room, they see slaughtered students, a terrible thing to ever have to witness. Willow later explains to Buffy that even though she’s seen giant bugs and vampires, she knew the guys who were dead in that room; only then did this strange world become real to her. It’s such a horrifying event for a loss of innocence, but that’s exactly what it is for Willow. She had plenty of innocence throughout this season, but this event pretty much drains it out from her. From this moment on, she’ll keep growing and becoming more rooted into reality.
Now to Buffy. This episode brings to light, again, the quirk of being a modern super hero. We’ve seen it before when Buffy wanted to go on a date instead of having to save the world — ending up in her realization that she may not be able to have a normal life in that respect. In this episode, it goes much further. She overhears Giles and Angel talking about the prophecy that says she will die. The way Joss handled this scene is pure genius. I had to watch it again after the episode was done just because of how spectacular and poignant it is. Her voice breaks as she talks to Giles about who the new Slayer might be. She asks if he’d train her. And about her dying, she — in complete vulnerability — asks, “Do you think it’ll hurt?” She goes through feelings of fear to feelings of anger. She yells at the two for not telling her and she yells at Giles for hiding behind his pile of books, trying to be helpful. She then drops all her defenses again and delivers such an honest statement: “I’m 16 years old. I don’t want to die.” And therein lies the unanticipated oddity of the modern super hero. Buffy goes home, tries to convince her mom to just get out of town for the weekend, but Joyce surprises her with a white dress that she bought for her. She ends up trying on the dress and wearing it for the rest of the episode. It symbolizes her quest for normalcy; she’d be wearing that dress to the Spring Fling if she were a regular high school girl. If she can’t wear it to a school dance, she’ll wear it to take on the Master. And even though she actually does die, all her self-doubt dies, too — and she comes back ready to kick ass and take names later.
I think it’s also important to touch on what the Master said before he drank from Buffy. He said that prophecies are tricky because they don’t tell you everything. All the prophecy said was that the Master and the Slayer would face, and she would die. What it doesn’t say is that she’ll come back and kick the Master’s ass. The incompleteness of prophecies is something that will come back time and time again through the series.
This episode is absolutely amazing. I was so blown away by the writing, the beautiful shots, the intensity building, etc. Joss closes the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in an extremely meaningful and impressive way, and it leaves the audience thirsting for more. Season 1 of Project Buffy is complete! Now we go onwards into Season 2!
Buffy S1 “Nightmares”
24 Jul 2010 3 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Billy, Buffy, Giles, Jeremy Foley, Nightmares, Slayer, The Master, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quote of the episode:
The Master: “Fear is a wonderful thing. It is the most powerful force in the human world. Not love, not hate…Fear! We are defined by the things we fear.”
Relevant episode is relevant.
I had the unique experience of watching this episode, devoted to fear, while dealing with one of my own fears: thunderstorms. It made watching this episode a little painful, as I’d see the flashes of lightning and hear the rolls of thunder while watching everybody succumb to their own fears. Though, knowing that the ultimate lesson of the episode would be to face one’s fear, I tried to release my fear every time I saw a flash of lightning. It’s a little harder in real life…
This episode, I would say, is the first in the series that takes a turn for the trivial. The preceding episodes outline a conflict and resolve that particular conflict. This episode, though, aims to highlight a particular theme, fear, and display how each of the beloved characters deals with that fear. This is the first venture into character development beyond the superficial; we go deep inside the minds of these characters, at their most vulnerable, and learn something about them.
Willow: Willow’s big fear shines a little insight on who she is. In the last episode, we saw how terrified she was when she had to perform in the Talent Show, and this episode follows that continuity and shows her worst nightmare as a performance. She has to sing on stage in front of a lot of people. Willow started off as a very geeky girl with a stunted sense of self-esteem. She’s grown since the beginning of the series into a much more confident and open person. One could argue that this fear of performance is just a fear of judgment. After all, whether acknowledged or not, audiences are at a performance to enjoy it and to judge it. Since Willow’s past has been plagued with bullying and cruel words, it comes as no surprise that she would be scared of what others thought of her. She definitely is on the right track to gaining more self-confidence, so hopefully her worst fear changes to something else soon.
Xander: He makes a remark earlier in the episode about how scary Nazis in his lap would be. As he enters his nightmare world, we see swastikas painted on the walls. We of course think that we’ll soon be dealing with Nazis, but (as Joss is oft to do) a twist happens and the camera focuses to a chocolate bar on the floor. Xander’s nightmare is free chocolate on the floor? If only. One chocolate bar, Chocolate Hurricane, reminds him of a terrifying clown at his 6th birthday party, and a clown — now donned with a huge knife — lunges for Xander. I won’t try to say that the clown stands for something deeper than a clown (because many people are scared of clowns), but it’s Xander’s reaction to the clown that is striking. He runs away from it at first, but after he meets up with Giles and Willow, instead of continuing to run, he faces it and punches it. He stands up and faces his fear. Xander, at least this far into the series, is not that brave a guy, but his facing a fear from his childhood suggests that he’s leaving childhood behind. He grows up in this scene, which shows you the kind of pull his past has on him, and that he’s prepared to step forward into the future.
Giles: Giles is shown to have a couple of fears in this episode. He fears not being able to read — in an earlier episode, we learned how connected he is to books. He also fears losing himself in the library stacks. But some of Buffy’s fears and his worst fear collide in the cemetery. His greatest fear is Buffy dead. Peculiarly enough, his feelings regarding her death are more focused on him; he says that would be his failure, to have never let her potential be met. At that moment we see that a Slayer’s success is also a Watcher’s success, which goes back to an earlier episode where Buffy and Giles understand each other and the sacrifices they make for the rest of society — this is another instance where their fates go hand-in-hand.
Buffy: Buffy has many fears in this episode. It starts with a nightmare where the Master kills her (or so we think). Another fear surfaces when she has to take a test she’s not prepared for (I’ve definitely encountered this fear, but I’ve luckily been able to leave it in the dust). She then fears that her parents’ divorce was actually because of her. That scene is very sensitive and it’s heartbreaking to see Buffy’s reactions. She also fears the Ugly Man, who is stronger than she can fight. She fears being buried alive; she fears The Master — she fears a lot. Her worst fear, though, is becoming a vampire. This realization connects right with the nightmare she has at the beginning of the episode; the Master doesn’t kill her in it, he makes her a vampire. This fear could also be seen as a fear of failure, since her duty is to kill vampires, not be sired into one. She overcomes her fear by facing the Ugly Man, knowing that she is something to be feared. She gains back her confidence and resumes kicking ass.
This episode is also reaches out to those suffering from abuse. The easiest thing to do in this situation (I can only imagine) is to hide — which is what Billy (Jeremy Foley) keeps doing from the Ugly Man. After Buffy faces her fear, she encourages him to do the same, which is facing his fear and recognizing his assailant’s identity. Is it harder to face one’s fear? I believe it is. It’s much easier for me to stay in my apartment and shudder at the thunder than it is to go outside and defy its power (though, to be clear, I am not trying to say that the fear from an abuser is equal to the fear of thunderstorms).
This is a really intense episode, and it definitely was made more intense by experiencing my fear along with the characters. Writing this post has been a bit therapeutic, which I’m thankful for. And this episode marks the first of many more mind-boggling episodes.
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