Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor & Morality

by Field, Mark

  Living Conditions

  There’s an obvious life lesson in Living Conditions: don’t have the bad judgment to be the college roommate of someone who grows up to be a Hollywood writer.

  We saw in The Freshman that one risk college presents on the road to becoming an authentic adult is a failure of self-confidence. Living Conditions shows us another source of risk, namely immaturity. Kathy may seem sympathetic in her struggle against her father, but she’s a metaphor for immaturity despite being 3000 years old. Age isn’t the same as maturity; Kathy’s behavior was that of a child.

  Kathy actually shares something in common with Eddie. He was insecure in his own identity, which is why he kept his copy of Of Human Bondage with him at all times. Similarly, Kathy can’t stay at college with her own identity so she tries to steal Buffy’s: “Willow: Ok, so that was the evil twin, right? 'Cause she was bordering on Cordelia-esque. Giles: I concur she's not, uh, herself….” “Willow: And Buffy's completely being not herself.”

  Since issues of identity appeared in both of the first two episodes, the question of one’s identity, including identity theft, is therefore an important theme of the season.

  I talked about Giles last episode so now I need to consider how Willow and Xander fit into Buffy’s life after high school. Willow and Xander are becoming adults too, and they’ll naturally start to develop more independence of thought as they do. This means they won’t always agree with Buffy, which we see here in their questioning of her judgment about Kathy. Just as Giles’s new role will create tension, so will the paths of Xander and Willow. They all need their own path, but Buffy needs them as well – they are, remember, her metaphorical mind, heart, and spirit, and her goal is to create an integrated self. That’s part of the challenge for S4.

  Trivia notes: (1) Contrary to Xander, “Big Sky Country” is Montana, not Nebraska. Since Kathy didn’t seem to know that, this was probably a clue to the audience. (2) Oz’s concern about Buffy “hitting the red zone” comes from the warning on the dashboard of cars that the engine is overheated or being revved too hard. (3) Presumably Buffy sees Kathy as “the Titanic” because Celine Dion, whose poster Kathy put up in The Freshman, sang the music for the movie. Note that at the end, Kathy is sucked into a vortex much like the Titanic sank. (3) When Xander described Buffy as “doing a Linda Blair on us”, he was referring to the actress’s role in the movie The Exorcist.

  The Harsh Light of Day

  The Harsh Light of Day gives us a lovers’ triangle: three pairs of lovers (or “lovers” in the case of Spike and Harmony). Each is contrasted with the others, all three connected by their eventual unhappiness. Note that the three women walking on campus at the end form a triangle.

  Parker is tall and dark, like Angel. While he says he hates the idea of guys who are dark and broody, he kind of is. These should have been flashing warning signals for Buffy, but the real clue was in the “philosophy” he expressed to Buffy right after the teaser: “Parker : I just wanted to say that it [his father’s death, assuming that was true] was so sad cause there was well, a lot of stuff that he didn't finish. It make me think about, you know, living for now.” Note that Parker isn’t lying here, but he’s using the phrase in exactly the opposite way Buffy takes it. He means it in a very shallow way, a usage we’ve seen twice before: once in WTTH when Buffy told Willow to “seize the moment because tomorrow you may be dead”; and in Surprise when Willow told Buffy “carpe diem” [seize the day]. Both of those previous instances turned out very badly, and we can see from Buffy’s conversation with Willow at the end that the experience with Parker has reopened Buffy’s insecurity about her relationships.

  Parker told no actual lies, at least none that we know of. He simply made statements which, in retrospect, could be interpreted 2 different ways and let Buffy draw the wrong conclusion. He appeared to be one thing when he was in fact something very different. Buffy, I think, at some level wanted to show that she could move past Angel, so she let herself believe instead of applying to Parker the same skepticism she showed with Kathy. As bojana pointed out in a comment to the post on Living Conditions, the lyrics to Cher’s song “Believe” might very well be seen as cluing us in to Buffy’s attitude here:

  Do you believe in life after love

  I can feel something inside me say

  I really don't think you're strong enough,

  Now

  What am I supposed to do

  Sit around and wait for you

  And I can't do that

  There's no turning back

  I need time to move on

  I need love to feel strong…

  The search for one’s perfect love is like the search for the Holy Grail – it’s an unattained or unattainable goal. At the end of the episode, Buffy arranged to send the Gem of Amara to Angel. He’s her Holy Grail, still. But as Spike’s experience in the crypt showed, in a scene reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, actually identifying the Grail from competing candidates is very hard. When Buffy slept with Parker we might say that “she chose…poorly.”

  So did Harmony, though not for same reason as Buffy. Unlike Parker, Spike made no secret of his contempt for Harmony and he treated her much worse than Parker treated Buffy. As a vampire, though, Harmony didn’t understand what the Gem/Grail might be, so she didn’t even know what to look for. Because she didn’t recognize the Grail, she gave it up to someone who didn’t deserve it. I think that could be a metaphor there as well as a double entendre.

  The story is less clear with Anya, so we’ll say the jury is still out on her choice. State of Siege added this in comments:

  “I understand your reasons for not wanting to talk about Anya, I do think that there is a way in which we can include her here without giving anything away: all three women want something difficult and complicated, and each allows herself to be deluded—by her given partner, by herself, or both—into having sex as a easy, simple way to satisfy that desire. Buffy, as you point out, wants to prove that she can move past Angel, so she takes Parker at face value, refuses to see the slime dripping from each word he says; Harmony, as Willow points out, always wanted a boyfriend—so much so that she lied about having one in high school—and so she sleeps with Spike and puts up with his cruelties in order to pretend she has one (she may not know what love is, but she certainly feels the pain of his endless jabs and rejections). And Anya, well, she wants to get over her desire for Xander, so she sleeps with him, thinking once will do it. It doesn't—and no matter what happens after, we can still say she was wrong about her first assumption and feels wronged, in turn, when it does not immediately seem that Xander shares her feelings—which is why she ends up in the Quad as part of the triangle.”

  Trivia notes: (1) The lyrics to the chorus of the Dingoes song we hear as the episode opens pretty accurately describe Parker: “When I see your face/my eyes just dilate /but I can't erase/that I want to violate/every bit and everything and/every part of you.” His eyes weren’t the only thing dilating. (2) In the big battle at the end of Graduation Day 2, there’s a scene of Harmony getting bit by one of the Mayor’s vamps. We didn’t see her turned, but obviously she was. (3) Buffy’s scar from where Angel bit her in GD2 is likely a metaphorical emotional scar as well as a physical one. (4) When Harmony asked Spike if she could make Antonio Banderas a vampire, that was a reference to the movie Interview With The Vampire. He’s married to Melanie Griffith, hence Spike’s response of “do Melanie and the kids as well”. (5) Buffy woke up in bed alone after sex with Parker, just as she did after sex with Angel in Surprise. You may be sensing a pattern here. (6) Spike’s “I love syphilis more than you” gets my vote for harshest putdown in the show. If you count AtS, though, it’s probably second to “I wasn’t thinking about you when you were here”. (7) The album Oz held up for Giles was “Loaded” by The Velvet Underground. Owning a Velvet Underground album is evidence that Giles was once really hip. (8) The story of the Gem of Amara continued on the AtS episode In the D
ark.

  Fear, Itself

  Fear, Itself may have the ending of a shaggy dog story, but it’s actually a critical episode for the season. Structurally and thematically, this episode identifies the most significant problem Buffy must solve in the climactic episode – not the finale this year – and the solution to that problem.

  I won’t spoil the season conclusion, nor what’s going to happen two episodes from now, so what I want to do in this post is explore the fears of Buffy, Willow, and Xander, something the show hasn’t done since Nightmares in S1. I’ll talk about the way those fears interact with their relationships to each other. Note that all the fears are on display even before they enter the haunted frat house. I’ll give quotes from before and after they enter the house to show what I mean.

  Willow displays two fears: that she’s just Buffy’s “sidekick”; and that she isn’t really any good at magic. What’s wrong with being a “sidekick”? Two things, I think. First, the sidekick is generally there to magnify the hero’s accomplishments, to make sure we all recognize the hero. Second, and related, the sidekick isn’t an actor in her own right. Being the sidekick means that you occupy an inferior position, one who just sets the stage for the hero. As we’ve known since Nightmares, Willow fears that underneath it all, she’s still just a badly dressed geek. If her role with Buffy is merely subsidiary, that reinforces those fears.

  Willow needs to be important in her own right. Magic is a critical part of her identity, or at least she wants it to be. That’s her chance to be a real contributor (as computer hacking was in S1). Just after the teaser we get this dialogue expressing her uncertainty:

  Willow: “I’ve got the basics down – levitation, charms, glamours. I just feel like I’ve plateaued wicca-wise.”

  Buffy: “What’s the next level?”

  Willow: “Transmutation, conjuring, bringing forth something from nothing. Gets pretty close to the primal forces. A little scary.”

  Buffy: “Well, no one’s pushing. You know, if it’s too much don’t do it.”

  Willow: “Don’t do it? What kind of encouragement is *that*?”

  Buffy: “This is an ‘encouragement’ talk? I thought it was ‘share my pain’.”

  Willow: “I don’t know. Then again, what is college for if not experimenting? You know, maybe I can handle it. I’ll know when I’ve reached my limit.”

  Then, when they do get to the frat house, both of Willow’s fears get tied together in one scene. Not only does she feel that Buffy is giving orders, but Buffy doubts Willow’s ability at magic. Buffy, by the way, is right about Willow and magic, but that probably just makes it more painful to hear rather than less:

  Willow: “Being the Slayer doesn’t automatically make you boss. You’re as lost as the rest of us.”

  Oz: “What are we talking about?”

  Willow: “It’s a simple incantation, a guiding spell for travelers when they become lost or disoriented.”

  Buffy: “And how does it work?”

  Willow: “It conjures an emissary from the beyond that – lights the way.”

  Buffy: “Conjuring. Will, let’s be realistic here. Okay, your basic spells are usually only fifty-fifty.”

  Xander fears that he’s invisible to the group and to Buffy in particular. Xander isn’t in college, he isn’t employed, and he feels himself inferior to those who are:

  Xander: “There is a party?”

  Willow: “We didn’t tell you?”

  Xander: “No, it’s cool. You guys got your little college thing. I’m fine. I mean, I got better things to do than tag along to some fraternity.”

  ***

  Anya: “I don’t understand.”

  Xander: “Well, every October 31st, we mortals dress up in masks...”

  Anya: “No, no, I understand that inane ritual. It’s those people. You continue to associate with them though you share little in common.”

  Xander: “What are you talking about?”

  Anya: “I mean they go to college, you don’t. They no longer live at home, - you do.”

  Xander: “Oh, hey, those things... The bonds of true friendship transcend... Could we just change the subject?”

  Again, the scene in the haunted house merely reiterates what Xander already said:

  “Buffy looks around: “Xander?”

  Xander: “Funny how you still haven’t lost your sense of inappropriate humor.”

  Buffy turns around looking right through him: “Xander, where did you go?”

  Xander: “Buffy, knock it off. Skit’s over. I’m right here.”

  Buffy stomps off down the hall: “This is so *typical* of him!”

  ***

  Cut to Xander walking up to a mirror: “There I am. I didn’t go anywhere. Great. Now I just have to live with the fact that no one else can see me.”

  Buffy's fear is fear of abandonment, i.e., that every time she cares about someone she'll be deserted. Worse than even this is her fear that the reason people abandon her is that there’s something wrong with her, that it’s her fault. That was the fear about her father we saw expressed in Nightmares, and her experience with Angel and Parker reinforces that:

  Joyce: “…Your father loved spending time with you.”

  Buffy looks down: “Not enough, I guess.”

  Joyce: “Buffy.”

  Buffy: “Oh, that just paved right over memory lane, huh?”

  Joyce: “Our divorce had nothing to do with you.”

  Buffy swallows: “I don’t know. – I’m starting to feel like there is a pattern here. – Open your heart to someone, and he bails on you. Maybe it’s easier to just not let anyone in.”

  Then again in the frat house, where it’s phrased generally enough to include not just the men in her life but her friends too:

  Hollow voice: “All alone.”

  Buffy pushes herself up: “Who said - that?”

  The guy that fell down the steps walks around a corner with his head tilted at an unnatural angle.

  Guy: “They all ran away from you. They always will. Open your heart to someone and …”

  Their individual fears and insecurities isolate them from each other. Start with Buffy’s fear that her friends will desert her. If Xander feels ignored by Buffy, then of course he’s less likely to stick around. Similarly, if it’s true that Willow is only there to magnify Buffy’s accomplishments by the contrast to her own weakness, then she’d have no reason to stay. And if Xander’s fears and Willow’s fears were true, then it would also be true in some sense that it is Buffy’s fault that they leave.

  Returning to the metaphor I’ve used before, Buffy needs to listen to her heart. She needs to give recognition to the importance of her spirit. They are, after all, part of her.

  In the episode the friends reunite because the demon who’s feeding off their fears needs those fears to manifest itself. The reveal of the manifestation of their fears allows them to recognize the insignificance of those fears.

  Trivia notes: (1) The title of Fear, Itself comes from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous line “we have nothing to fear except fear itself.” (2) This is the first episode to use the word “wicca”, but it will become common from now on. It’s mostly used as a synonym for “witch”, though that’s not quite right as you can see from the link. (3) Oz’s description of Buffy as suffering from “post-Parker depression” seems like a play on post-partum depression. (4) When Giles said “It’s alive!” in reference to his Frankenstein puppet, that was a reference to the 1931 movie Frankenstein. Chaz repeats the phrase when they find him in the closet of the haunted frat house. (5) Oz’s “mi casio es su casio” is a bi-lingual pun. In English, the phrase “my house is your house” is said by the owner to make a guest feel welcome. Oz translated the phrase into Spanish, where the word “house” is “casa”: “mi casa es su casa”. Casio is the name of the speaker Oz brought over. (6) When Buffy said she was “just the beard” for her father to get candy, she was using gay slang to say that she was
just the cover her father used. A “beard” in slang is (originally) a man used by a lesbian who is concealing her sexual orientation, or vice versa. (7) We never saw Buffy tell her mother that Ted was a robot, but apparently she did. (8) In addition to being correct about the phrase “fifth wheel”, Xander is also right in that there will be 5 people in the group once Anya gets there. (9) Abbott and Costello were an old comedy team. One of their movies was “Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein”. (10) Willow freaked at the tarantula on her shoulder because she’s always been afraid of spiders. From Nightmares: “Xander: Oh, the spiders! Willow's been kind of, um, what's the word I'm looking for? Insane about what happened yesterday. Willow: I don't like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies, and their sticky webs, and what do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you: for crawling across your face in the middle of the night. Ewww! How do they not ruffle you?” (11) Buffy’s “size doesn’t matter” reference to Gachnar plays off of the advertising campaign for the 1998 movie version of Godzilla. (12) Bunnies will become a standing joke in the series.