Buffy S2 “What’s My Line?” Part 1
08 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in Buffy, Project Buffy, TV Shows Tags: Angel, Buffy, Drusilla, Firefly, Giles, Kendra, Order of Taraka, River Tam, Slayer, Spike, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Willow: You and Angel are going skating? Alone?
Buffy: Unless some unforeseen evil pops up. But I’m in full see-no-evil mode.
Willow: Angel ice-skating…
Buffy: I know, two worlds collide.
Buffy: Do I like shrubs?
Xander: That’s between you and your god.
Whoa guys, I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to continue Project Buffy. I’ve been SO busy with school and auditioning for grad school, but now I can get back to the grind — especially now that I’ve finally purchased the entire series for myself 
So, this episode is the first part of two. Buffy and the gang are filling out questionnaires for Career Day, something Buffy is not very excited about. While Xander, Willow, and Cordelia have their entire futures ahead of them, Buffy’s fate is already sealed; she’s the Slayer. The gang tries to console her throughout the episode, but Buffy doesn’t have any of it. She wants to be a normal girl — a theme that will pop up time and time again.
Meanwhile, Spike has his minions steal an artifact from Du Lac’s tomb, which will help transcribe the text that will bring Drusilla back to full health. An interesting detail to note about Drusilla: at times, the music around her is plunky celeste notes, giving the feel of creepy dollhouse music. This music around her elludes to her innocence as well as to her strangeness. It’s interesting to also note how similar Drusilla is to River Tam from “Firefly”, disturbing and innocent individuals with great power.
This episode introduces the Order of Taraka, bounty hunters set loose by Spike on Buffy. Some are human, and some are not. Buffy becomes very scared when Giles describes them to her, saying that they have no care for earthly possessions. They pursue their goal until it is captured. Even if some are stricken down, more will come until their mission is complete. This causes Buffy to run away to Angel’s lair.
This episode also introduces Kendra. At first, she’s made to look like part of the Order of Taraka. They introduce the savage man getting off a bus at Los Angeles and the salesman who offers a woman free beauty samples both before introducing Kendra — who knocks out an airport worker when she exits the luggage section of an airplane. She’s also seen watching Buffy and Angel at the ice-skating rink. She later disables Angel, leaving him to fry in the soon-to-rise morning sun, and she attacks Buffy in Angel’s lair. The shocker comes when she reveals that she is Kendra, the Vampire Slayer.
I saw a similarity between Buffy in this episode and Buffy in the end of season one. She succumbs to fear. In the “Prophecy Girl”, she went to confront the Master, but her fear paralyzes her and leads to her demise. In “What’s My Line” Part 1, her fear causes her to run away to Angel. It’s not surprising that she would be scared, but I would have liked to see the resurrected Buffy from “Prophecy Girl” in this Buffy — a girl who isn’t going to let fear conquer her. Fear actually is something she struggles with during the season. I want the Buffy from “Nightmares” to realize that she is something to be feared, too.
An interesting cut happens in this episode: a match cut. A match cut is when one scene contains some image and then cuts to another scene with a similar image, thus creating some link between these (probably) dissimilar images. In this episode, there appears an aural match cut. When the salesman enters Buffy’s neighbor’s house, she lets loose a blood-curdling scream — such a high-pitched scream that it matches the pitch of a soaring airplane in the next scene. A cut like this encourages the mind to link the malicious man in the previous scene to the strange woman we see in the airplane — which then makes her revelation at the end of the episode that much more shocking.
Part Two will come pretty soon!
Buffy S2 “The Dark Age”
18 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Cordelia, Giles, Jenny Calendar, Mark of Eyghon, Slayer, Vampire, Wesley Pryce, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “Ooh, gang, did you hear that? A bonus day of school plus Cordelia, mix in a little rectal surgery and it’s my best day ever!”
Jenny Calendar/Eyghon: “Nothing’s safe in this world, Rupert. Don’t you know that by now?”
Buffy: “I’m not going to lie. It was scary. I’m used to you being, you know, the grown-up. And then I find out you’re a person.”
Giles: “Most grown-ups are.”
Let me start off this post with how strange the beginning is. This man hurriedly approaches a high school at night. He asks the janitor for Rupert Giles, and the janitor motions him over to the library. Even if the janitor knew that Giles was the librarian, wouldn’t it be weird to motion this man, at night, towards the library when the librarian probably isn’t there — because it’s night?
Anyways, this episode focuses on Giles. From the very beginning, with an unknown man trying to find him, this episode shines a mysterious light onto our lovable librarian. He’s not the predictably past-less man that he seems; he is a real person with real histories and experiences, just like everybody else. This episode also develops Giles in other ways as a person, for instance romantically with his relationship with Jenny Calendar. At this point, Jenny’s got him pretty much figured out, and she can make him “squirm” by joking about ruining an important book of his. Though, the dialogue takes us to another aspect of their relationship, where she hopes to “make him squirm” on a night-in. Things are taking off in their relationship, and we witness Giles’ actions and reactions to it.
For example, Giles tells Jenny that he never meant for her to “get involved in any of this”. I take it to mean that by “any of this”, Giles is referring to all the fantastical and otherworldly dangers that he, as a Watcher, has to face. Even though she is a techno-pagan, Giles doesn’t want her to ever have to face real danger — because he cares for her.
We see the same mark on Giles that we see earlier on the guy from the beginning of the episode. We find out that it’s the Mark of Eyghon, but when confronted about it, Giles doesn’t share any information. He says that it’s “his battle”. That introduces the idea that there is something that he is more suited to solving than the Slayer is. Buffy doesn’t see it that way; she sees this situation as something that endangers everybody, and everybody should know the details of this situation. At that point, Giles leaves, leaving Buffy to try to solve this problem on her own. Luckily, Buffy has Willow, and Willow is a BAMF.
It is striking, though, to see Giles in this episode. He has scruff; he’s all disheveled. The lighting is particularly involved in making him look so…different. The lighting’s dark with bright green and yellow hues. This gives him a very unnatural and eerie countenance — going along with this air of mystery that is hanging around him during the entire episode. And there are moments (for instance, when Jenny/Eyghon jump out of the window, when Giles knows that Jenny is possessed), when Giles looks strikingly similar to Wesley Pryce, who we haven’t met yet. But I look at him, and I see Wesley. There’s an uncanny Watcher-ness in the two.
Finally Giles spills the beans, and we get a glimpse into his past. He was a rebel in his youth, experimenting with magics. We find out that he and his comrades discovered how to summon Eyghon, but one day it took a hold of one of his gang and they killed him in the process of saving him. Now he’s stricken with the fear of losing Jenny — which shows his true and honest colors.
But due to Willow’s brilliance, Angel saves the day with his being dead.
Unfortunately, this experience — which Giles had hoped he could keep Jenny from — has shaken her. And she’s drawing back, coping, thinking.
Thought the conversation between Buffy and Giles at the end (as many conversations between them are) is poignant. Buffy, growing up, now realizes that adults have lives and experiences and issues. Once she graduates high school, she will realize that even more.
Buffy S2 “Lie to Me”
09 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Drusilla, Ford, Giles, Jason Behr, Jenny Calendar, Joss, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Buffy: “Are you drinking coffee again? ‘Cause we’ve talked about this.”
Xander: “Once more with tension.”
Buffy: “Lie to me.”
Hello all! Greetings from Ann Arbor, MI! I am here for a lesson, but I had some extra time on my hands and thought a blog post would be the best thing to do!
As the episode’s name implies, this episode is about honesty and trust. Even side stories deal with trust; Jenny asks Giles to trust her regarding the mysterious date she’s planning for them. Though it all mostly centers around Buffy’s trust. The events of the episode lead to those she trusts most hiding information from her. She sees Angel with Drusilla in the park, but he doesn’t tell her about it. Angel, Willow, and Xander all cooperate to find out information about Buffy’s LA friend Ford (Jason Behr) behind her back. Understandably, Buffy is upset.
Buffy sees Angel while she’s on patrol. She sees him speaking to a woman (Drusilla) in a park. She’s too late to see him stop Dru from preying on a child, but she’s right on time to see them speak really closely. Of course (and yet again) she’s overcome with jealousy and inadequacy. Sometimes I’m frustrated at Buffy’s jealousy. She was right there feeling insignificant in the last episode, and then at the end of the episode, she and Angel are making out and life is grand. But then we’re back to her being jealous. Enter trust issues! This just means that she doesn’t trust Angel yet, which she admits later on in the episode. Once she realizes that he does love her and that he is a vampire with a soul — meaning good — she will begin to trust him and she won’t succumb to jealousy. I don’t know how long that takes.
The next trust issue, which includes Angel, is more directed at her friends. They go behind her back to investigate Ford. They trust Angel’s feelings about him, but — understandably — Buffy’s history with this kid blinds her. When she discovers that they’ve been doing this, she feels betrayed, but I think this experience shows her that she should trust her friends (people who have saved her life various times already) more than some kid who she went to school with in LA. I think Buffy’s grown from the events in this episode, because she will start to realize that the friendship she has with Willow and Xander is deep and extremely trustworthy.
The last issue in this episode deals with the cult of vampire wannabes. Ford’s assembled a host of crazies who believe vampires exist and that they are not cruel killers; they believe that vampires are transcendent beings, almost divine creatures. This is, of course, B.S. We know from Buffy’s experiences that vampires, in Joss’ world, are human shells inhabited by evil demons. They hunger for human blood and kill blindly. On the one hand, they can’t really be blamed for this foolishness. They haven’t encountered a vampire in real life. They have a romantic ideal of a vampire, and they want to believe it. These are young people that thrive for things that even I want: immortality and youthfulness. I love immersing myself into fantasy stories with immortal beings and magical creatures, and I wish that was possible — so I can relate with these kids who are holding on to this idea that could transform their lives and achieve their deepest wish. But that’s not real life, and they almost die pursuing their dream.
Ford is different, though. He is sick, and he wants to become a vampire so that he can live. He has 6 months, and he wants more, even if that means living in a Ford-shell with Ford’s memories and a demon’s evil. And it’s a bit cruel that Ford is killed, while the other fools live. Ford actually had an actual reason to seek out vampiric immortality, yet he’s the one left lifeless.
As always, feel free to comment! I hope you enjoy this blog post all the way from Ann Arbor!
Buffy S2 “Halloween”
03 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Buffy, Cordelia, Drusilla, Halloween, Joss, Slayer, Spike, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Cordelia: “Well, his loss is your incredible gain!”
Cordelia: “Look, Buffy, you may be hot stuff when it comes to demonology or whatever, but when it comes to dating, I’m the Slayer.”
Cordelia: “Oh, he’s a vampire. Of course! But the cuddly kind, like a Care Bear with fangs?
Man, Cordelia’s got the zingers!!
Of course, in Joss’ fantastical ‘verse, Halloween would be the Demonic Labor Day. Thank goodness for that; parents have enough to worry about with their children wandering about at night to strangers’ houses without demons becoming involved.
After being absent from a couple episodes, Spike and Dru are back! From her first appearance, Dru appears to be just a bit crazy, but in this episode, she adds seer to her résumé, for she senses Ethan’s witchcraft. Also, we see Spike’s methods of conquering a Slayer. He sends one vampire to fight her and another to film the fight, and he watches the footage later and learns how she fights. Sneaky little devil.
This episode brings to light many insecurities of our characters. Buffy and Angel are supposed to have a date at the beginning of the episode, but a couple of things get in the way. Buffy has branches in her hair from her vampire fight, and Cordelia’s talking with Angel when her date flakes on her. Buffy walks into the Bronze seeing the two of them laughing at a table, and she immediately turns around to walk out. Part of me gets very frustrated with Buffy in this aspect. She’s a confident woman when it comes to everything vampire slayage, but when she sees the guy she likes talking with another girl, she freaks. Granted, Cordelia is beautiful, but at this point of the Buffy/Angel plot, she doesn’t compare with Buffy in character. I get frustrated when I see her so intimidated by Cordelia, but I suppose I can understand how Buffy feels — the mystical is Buffy’s terrain, but Cordelia’s confident that dating is her terrain. She also complains about how she’s not a normal girl and can’t do normal things like dating. But she never stops to realize that Angel is not a normal guy either. It’s not like he can stroll in the daylight as a normal boyfriend. Why doesn’t Buffy realize that maybe he, who understands her calling, her power, and her secrets, is the one she can really open up to? Plus, after looking at Angel’s diary, Buffy feels so inadequate in her appearance. Here is where I sometimes roll my eyes. Buffy is a powerful Slayer; she’s beautiful and elegant. But this is also the universe where nerdy Willow has a six-pack and dorky Xander has a smokin’ body. I think we’re supposed to see them in a diminished capacity, but it’s hard to get over that (especially when I feel like *my* body is actually inadequate). At the end of the episode, Buffy and Angel talk (communication is key!) and work out everything…for now.
Willow and Xander also have insecurities highlighted in this episode. Willow is used to being off in the background, unnoticed. She’s a nerd who lacks social skills. She’s been growing as a person during the 1st season, but she still has a ways to go. When prompted to dress up for Halloween, she chooses to be a ghost. Buffy tells Willow that she’s hiding by choosing that costume. Oz, who was clearly moved by Willow, doesn’t recognize her when he bumps into her in her ghost costume. By the end of the episode Willow realizes that she needs to step out of her shell.
Xander still has insecurities about his masculinity. Attempting to defend Buffy’s honor, he faced a beating from a pretty buff guy, and he even remarks about doing something extremely manly, but Buffy steps in and rescues Xander. Escaping physical pain has a price: humiliation. He now has to live with the shame of having a girl protect him instead of he himself. He’s struggled with maintaining an acceptable amount of masculinity throughout the show, whether it was being a virgin or not or fighting off bullies. He picks to be a soldier for Halloween. When he’s transformed into an actual soldier, he reeks masculinity. He beats up demons and saves damsels in distress. At one point he comments about how he strangely has a sense of closure after beating up someone. After this experience, though, Xander will still have to deal with the pressures of society regarding man’s masculinity.
I apologize for taking so long to write another post. I’m going to work hard to be more regular!!
Buffy S2 “Inca Mummy Girl”
18 Aug 2010 2 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Ampata, Ara Celi, Buffy, Danny Strong, Jonathan, Joyce, Oz, Seth Green, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “You’re not a praying mantis, are you? Sorry, someone else.”
Xander: “Buffy, I love Willow, and she’s my best friend, which makes her not the kind of girl who I think about her lips that much. She’s the kind of girl that I’m best friends with.”
You know, Xander confuses me. There are clearly times when Xander is not interested in Willow, like when he glares at Angel everytime he’s around, getting Buffy’s attention. There are also times when he and Willow have a great connection — like the very beginning of Season 2, with all the ice cream. He may not think about Willow’s lips, but he sure as hell thought about her nose! I’m not trying to express any personal feelings about Xander and Willow, but he’s giving off mixed signals — which I’m sure Willow is having trouble with, too. What makes it worse is that these feelings aren’t a secret. Buffy knows that Willow likes Xander. Xander acknowledges that he knows also by wanting Buffy to join them to the dance, so that he and Willow aren’t alone together. Willow knows that he isn’t interested. When Xander confronted Buffy, she was frank and told him she didn’t feel the same way. I think Xander should do the same, instead of letting Willow wallow in hope and disappointment.
This episode introduces two new characters! I had forgotten that Oz (Seth Green) was introduced so soon. We see him as the lead guitar player of a band, who should be getting all the girls but is apparently really picky. That being said, it may surprise us that he, from the stage, sees Eskimo Willow and is fascinated by her. After he sees her from the stage, he tries to talk to her, but he keeps missing her, sometimes saying, “Who is that girl?” Willow’s ship to getting over Xander may just be arriving. The other character is Jonathan (Danny Strong), my namesake, though, he is not introduced by name. We’ll just keep seeing him around Sunnydale.
This episode is about another Chosen One, an Incan princess who was chosen as a sacrifice. It’s interesting to put Ampata (Ara Celi) and Buffy together. Joyce commented that Ampata’s been there for only a couple of days and she’s fitting right in — which is exactly what Buffy would be like if she didn’t have to honor her responsibilities. Ampata gets to live out what Buffy longs for: a normal life. So when Buffy finds out exactly who Ampata is, she’s slightly sympathetic. She understands what it’s like to be 16 years old and have to confront responsibility and death — the difference is that Buffy actually confronted destiny, but she got to defy it, too.
This marks another vampire-less episode, showing the extent to the mystical beings the gang has to confront, and prolonging continuation of Spike’s plans and Principal Synder’s secrets.
Buffy S2 “Some Assembly Required”
16 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Angel, Angelo Spizzirri, Buffy, Chris, Daryl, Giles, Ingo Neuhaus, Jenny Calendar, Joss, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Buffy: “Sorry, but I’m an old-fashioned gal. I was raised to believe that men dig up the corpses and the women have the babies.“
Angel: “Yeah, but he’s in your life. He gets to be there when I can’t. Take your classes, eat your meals, hear your jokes and complaints. He gets to see you in the sunlight.”
This episode is extremely creepy at times. Joss is really good at creating creepy images and delivering creepy moments; sometimes I wonder how he sleeps at night. This episode revolves around the classic Frankenstein idea of creating a new person from dead flesh. The way Joss handles this episode is very interesting, because at first, we think that the boys who are doing these terrible deeds are sick freaks. After we get to know more about these boys, Chris (Angelo Spizzirri) in particular, we realize that Chris is fighting some conflicting emotions. He’s actually brought his brother, Daryl (Ingo Neuhaus), back from the dead after an unfortunate early death. Chris impulsively brought his brother back, only to realize that his brother could never go out in public; his brother would be alive again, but he would also be extremely lonely. So he’s pressured, by the brother he loves, to create him a beautiful woman to share his life with.
It was a lot easier when the kids just seemed like sick freaks — because what they were doing was clearly and undeniably wrong. Now that this complicated factor is in the mix, it blurs the lines a little bit. I mean, clearly it would still be wrong if the kids had taken a life in order to complete the woman — but was it that wrong to harness those dead parts after those cheerleaders had died? A brother just wants to do what he can to make up for a cheated life. The point is that I can clearly understand Chris’ motivations; they are noble and respectable, but life and death is an unavoidable cycle — and he learns this when Daryl, in an effort to save his woman’s body from the fire, dies again.
The other thing that I would like to indulge in is the absolute cuteness that is Giles and Jenny Calendar. What started as conflicting tensions between ideologies has turned into a very natural and logical attraction between the two. Giles is kicking himself trying to practice asking her out. He gets advice from Buffy — and later doesn’t even have to test out her ideas when Jenny asks him out! They are very much an example of opposites attract. He’s the more old-fashioned man with his roots in books and the past, and she’s the more forward-thinking woman, exploring the Internet. They are absolutely delightful, and I do look forward to revisiting this relationship. I really appreciate that Joss developed Giles’ character this way. In other shows similar to this, the high school kids would be seen as the main characters: Buffy, Willow, and Xander. They are the ones that the viewers relate to the most. A similar show could have an older guide or teacher who is there purely as a guide, with no other purpose at all — but Joss makes Giles more than just a Watcher. Giles is just as naive as they are, regarding dating, and he’s experiencing life just as the youngans are.
I’m sorry it took me so long to write about this. I am trying to become more diligent!
Buffy S2 “When She Was Bad”
09 Aug 2010 2 Comments
in Project Buffy Tags: Buffy, Cordelia, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Xander: “Sorry, I can’t help myself. Your nose looks so tasty.”
Cordelia: “Whatever is causing the Joan Collins ‘tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it. ‘Cause pretty soon you’re not even gonna have the loser friends you’ve got now.”
Xander: “A bitca?”
The opening might be my favorite part of the episode. Willow and Xander are playing a movie quotes game and walking through the neighborhood one evening. Xander remarks about the really boring summer they’ve been having, which I’m sure is all talk since it’s probably been him and Willow the entire time — and that wouldn’t be boring. They talk about Buffy, but then drop the subject as Xander pokes Willow’s nose with his ice cream cone. The chemistry between the two is real and true. Xander tries to lick off the ice cream, and Willow stops him giddily. He wipes off the ice cream, and they almost share a kiss before a vampire ruins the moment. The way these two act around each other shows exactly how comfortable they are with each other. They’ve been friends for years, and they know each other and trust each other completely. I suspect that they’ve had similar moments like this in the summer, but maybe none had gone as far as this one was about to go. This scene shows that there could be more than friendship between these two.
Unfortunately, this episode wasn’t my favorite — especially following Season One’s epic finale. This opening scene was fantastic, but the rest failed to impress me. So on that note, I’ll focus on another aspect of the modern super hero. As we’ve seen in previous episodes, Buffy is a powerful super hero with super strength, but she’s living in the modern world where school is a priority and she can’t be completely open with her family and possible dates. Then we saw her deal with hearing a prophecy about her death, and how scared she was to die at the age of sixteen. She promptly kicked ass after her death, but this episode focuses on the aftermath. Evidenced by how her father described her stay in Los Angeles and how she starts treating her friends, Buffy is clearly affected, which is totally understandable. I mean, she did die after all. She starts to fear vampires, afraid that she’ll die again. Then the Anointed Child tries to revive the Master, which would revive Buffy’s worst fear. When watching superhero movies or reading comics, you don’t really see trauma from facing death. They face it all the time; it just seems like part of the job — but Buffy is a sixteen year old girl. That’s not to say that sixteen year old girls can’t take much, but she shouldn’t have to face death. She should be worrying about getting through school and making friends, not about saving the world from an apocalypse, time and time again. So when she faces death and slays the one who killed her, there definitely will be some trauma. That being said, she’s got to find a better way to channel her anger. She shouldn’t hurt her friends and those who care about her. The end of the episode, though, shows how lucky she is when Xander and Willow just dismiss all the things Buffy did, and they save her a seat in class and talk to her like nothing happened. Xander and Willow are good friends.
I just want to apologize for taking so long to start the new season. I’ll try to be more regular this month. Thanks for all the visits and please feel free to comment and discuss! Stay shiny y’all!
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.
Buffy S1 “The Puppet Show”
22 Jul 2010 1 Comment
in Project Buffy Tags: Armin Shimerman, Buffy, Cordelia, Joss, Principal Synder, Slayer, Vampire, Willow, Xander
Quotes of the Episode:
Principal Snyder: “That’s the kind of woolly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten.”
Cordelia: “But the mood! It’ll be all wrong! My song is about dignity and human feelings and personal…hygiene or something . Anyway, it’s sappy, and no one is gonna be feeling sappy after all that rock and roll.”
Boy, does Joss have a way with expressing creepiness.
The first creepy item to discuss is the new principal. Principal Synder (Armin Shimerman) just oozes nastiness. The episode begins with Giles listening to students performing their Talent Show acts, and the trio comes up and teases him for a little bit. As they leave, Principal Snyder just turns everything they said around on them, and he punishes them to a spot in the Talent Show. Then, when he’s alone with Giles, he shares his principal’s philosophy, which is entirely antagonistic towards the children; he doesn’t like them! Uh-oh. He suspects that Buffy is a trouble-maker, and his being around all the time gives the audience suspicions that he may be more than just a principal. There’s also the scene, right before Buffy finds Morgan (Rich Werner), where Principal Snyder tells her that a girl like her shouldn’t be wandering the halls alone when there’s a killer out there. Buffy replies that she’s just leaving and that she can take care of herself, but when she says that last part, it’s as if she’s saying she can protect herself from him, too. It was a very eerie scene between the two, and it leaves a lot of ambiguity for who exactly Principal Snyder is.
The second creepy item is the dummy. The dummy has a malicious smirk on him, and his sleazy voice and inappropriate conversation make him the prime suspect for demonic activity. It’s not a surprise that Joss twists the plot so that what the audience feels will happen actually turns out differently. The dummy is not a demon; he’s a demon-hunter!
This episode shows the other side of a modern day’s superhero. While Buffy has to balance going to school, being a daughter, having friends, and being The Slayer, many demons have to their own limitations, too. A demon masquerades as a high school student, and he has to come up with a Talent Show act while also killing people for their organs. It’s just not as easy these days to be a demon. And while vampires weren’t a part of this episode, they, too, have to work in the boundaries of the modern era. For example, the first scene of the entire series shows Darla acting as a scared high school student going for some fun with an older guy. This means that at some point before this trip, she had to meet the guy and come up with back stories, etc. This is a whole new world for villain and hero.
I love how the episode ends, with the trio reciting some Shakespeare. The three have completely different expressions. Xander is struggling to remember his lines; Willow is utterly and completely terrified, and Buffy just wants to get it all over with. It’s hysterical to watch, especially when Willow just runs off stage in fear, leaving a bewildered Xander and Buffy on stage. O Joss, how you slay me. *wink wink*
Recent Comments