At the climax of What’s My Line? Part Two, Drusilla rises from the ashes of a destroyed church, restored to full strength in a floor-length black dress – a true gothic phoenix. She carries Spike in her arms, Pieta-style, in the same manner as he carried her back in Part One, which makes the meaningContinue reading “The Bestest Buffy Birthday Bash In a Big Long While (Surprise)”
Tag Archives: angel
You Seem A Bit Young To Have A Grown-Up Daughter (Bad Eggs)
In case you haven’t noticed, season two is about sex. A teacher underlines the point at one point in this episode when they literally underline the word on a chalkboard, harkening back to when another teacher underlined season one’s central theme – death. There is little that Buffy’s high school years like doing more thanContinue reading “You Seem A Bit Young To Have A Grown-Up Daughter (Bad Eggs)”
Do You Trust Me? (Lie To Me)
If season one was about placing the basic foundations of the show, then season two is about expanding its scope, and its complexity. It holds a prism up to the light that season one shines on the characters, splitting it into a thousand rays, a thousand ways to look at the show. This is aContinue reading “Do You Trust Me? (Lie To Me)”
Is This A Penis Metaphor? (Reptile Boy)
You know how it goes. Girl meets Boy. He’s older and more experienced – but seems nice, kind, thoughtful. Girl falls for Boy. They get close; maybe they sleep together. And then, when she wakes up, he’s changed. He’s cruel, mean, even evil. It turns out he just wanted to use her, and never reallyContinue reading “Is This A Penis Metaphor? (Reptile Boy)”
I’ve Dropped Anvils (Inca Mummy Girl)
Sometimes, a metaphor within a Buffy episode is tough to tease out. It’s hidden in layers and double-meanings. It might take a third or fourth viewing for it to emerge. Sometimes, it’s a metaphor that was probably never intended by the writers, but emerges upon intense analysis. Sometimes, you discover a completely new metaphor thatContinue reading “I’ve Dropped Anvils (Inca Mummy Girl)”
Did You Think She Would Look Upon Your True Face And Give You A Kiss? (Some Assembly Required)
In terms of genre, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has always played in many sandpits. It’s a superhero show, and it’s a horror, and it’s a teen drama. It’s a fantasy show with knights and witches and demigods, and a sci-fi show with cyborgs and brain chips. It’s a comedy, and it’s a tragedy. It’s aContinue reading “Did You Think She Would Look Upon Your True Face And Give You A Kiss? (Some Assembly Required)”
Am I A Thing Worth Saving? (Angel)
There comes a point in the life cycle of every piece of popular culture, when a major twist stops being a spoiler, and becomes instead common knowledge, presumably known by anyone who has not dwelt beneath rock for their entire life. Darth Vader is Luke’s father. Rosebud was his sled. It was Earth the whole time. Snape kills Dumbledore. I’m not tagging these as spoilers, because you already know them, even if you haven’t seen these films. And the fact that you do know these twists changes the fundamental experience of viewing them. You can never have the same experience that those original audiences did. The emotions that they originally intended to invoke are lost to time. The pop-cultural osmosis that these texts have undergone has twisted the texts themselves into something new.
It is in this context that we must view this seventh episode, Angel (named exactly the same as both a character and a show, seemingly in order to ruin my tagging system). Because this episode is built around a major twist: the shocking revelation that the mysterious Angel, the man who has been following Buffy around dropping cryptic warnings, is in fact…
Dates Are Things Normal Girls Have (Never Kill a Boy on the First Date)
If you’ve been active in the Buffy fandom at any point in the last twenty years, you’ll know that there are a few big questions that come up in fan spaces at least once every month to be endlessly debated. Topics that are litigated and re-litigated and re-re-re-re-ligitated until everyone who has participated in themContinue reading “Dates Are Things Normal Girls Have (Never Kill a Boy on the First Date)”
Insect Reflection 