Buffy Redux - 1X12 "Prophecy Girl"
Jun. 28th, 2006 12:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxI am at long last re-watching BtVS. I haven't re-watched the series since it aired, so it has been a while. That said, I don't intend to watch everything. There are DVDs that I didn't buy and episodes that I also have no interest in watching. That being the case, let me admit that I didn't bother to buy Season 1 BtVS. I saw it when it aired and again when it first went into syndication, and that's enough. I intended to begin my re-watch with Season 2. However, when I thought about it, I remembered that "When She Was Bad" isn't particularly flattering to Buffy. Since I frequently have problems identifying with Buffy, I decided "When She Was Bad" might not be the best place to start re-watching... so, I stopped by Blockbuster and picked up "Prophecy Girl".
I also have to admit that I cannot re-watch the series with the fresh eyes of a newbie. I've seen the entire series and know where the story is going. My rewatch will have the benefit of an overview of the series. The downside is that my rewatch will carry the baggage of an overview of the series.
Not that I didn't have baggage when I first watched BtVS.
I grew up watching soaps (Yeah, I know. Lame.) And I dipped in and out of various soaps depending on whether their stories caught my attention. Sarah Michelle Gellar's tenure on "All My Children" happened to coincide with a period of time when I watched "All My Children." I don't have clear memories of SMG's stint on AMC, and I'm unsure of whether I liked or hated SMG's character. I tend to think it was a bit of both. SMG's character was an egocentric young woman, so obsessed with being acknowledged by the mother who gave her up for adoption, that she ignored her loving adoptive parents and set out to make her biological mother's life hell. SMG's "Kendall" would have been unredeemable except for the fact that it was rather fun watching her abuse her biological (and frequently obnoxious) parent.
Oh, and then there was the age controversy. SMG was sixteen when she came onto All My Children. and viewers cried foul. There was no way for Erica Kane's daughter to be a teenager. There was a fandom kerfuffle and the show did a tapdance and a retcon which resulted in SMG’s sixteen year-old self being aged to twenty-three in the twinkling of an eye.
I bring all of this up, because I originally tuned into BtVS out of curiousity. I was used to seeing SMG play an adult villainess, and I wanted to see whether SMG could play a teen heroine. In "Prophecy Girl", SMG plays a heroine. So here we go, my thoughts while rewatching...
First off, looking the episode up on the net, Prophecy Girl first aired on June 2, 1997. The episode is nearly ten years old.
Time does fly, doesn't it? The entire cast looks so young. Starting with a young and rather handsome Nick Brendon, who opens the episode with Xander working up his nerve to ask Buffy for a date.
"You know how I feel about you. It's pretty obvious isn't it? There's never been anyone else -- for me..."
You know, there's actually a fair bit about Xander in those lines. In Season 1, it was fairly obvious how Xander felt about Buffy. I remember, on my first viewing of Season 1, that I had considered the show to be fairly transparent in the way it was setting up a Xander/Buffy/Angel triangle. Xander was the ‘good’, ‘normal’ guy and Angel was the 'mysterious' and dangerous one. Time has clouded what my initial feelings. I no longer remember which man’s side I was on when first watching Prophecy Girl, but I do remember feeling that the show sided with one character over the other. I also remember feeling that I was backing the dark horse. Except, at the moment, I’m not entirely sure which character I viewed as the dark horse. So, there you go, I've always been a storyline rebel.
Anyway, back to Xander. It was obvious how he felt about Buffy. And it sort of says something about Buffy that she doesn't notice. I don't think, at this point in her life, that her lack of notice says anything horrible about Buffy. She’s sixteen and wrapped up in a world of issues, so this isn’t "bad Buffy!" for not noticing Xander. It's just that he isn't on her radar.
However, Xander was practically falling over himself for her...not that Xander is any brighter. Willow gives him doe-eyes the entire time he's practicing his “Buffy, you wanna date?” speech… not that he notices either.
Listening to Xander’s practice speech makes me wonder whether the issues he’s bringing up in this scene are the ones which still linger when he dumps Anya at the altar in “Hell’s Bells.” The possessiveness in this scene never completely goes away, at least not through Season 6. In ”Prophecy Girl“ he discusses asking Buffy to the Spring Fling Dance by saying, "It's not just any dance. It's time for students to choose a mate..."
Er, not really, Xan-man, it's just a high school dance. However, I do find it interesting that there are thoughts of ‘forever’ when characters are so damn young. Was the show trying to work in a sense of destiny? Or was it is simply portraying the teen tendency to scribble each others name in notebooks with “X+Y=4Ever”? If it's the latter, maybe it fits with this episode as a whole.
Teens feel invincible, like they'll live forever. The young take risks that older and more experienced adults do not take… because we sense our own mortality. ("Hey! That could get me killed!") For teens, death is something a very long way away, and so they naively think in terms of 'forever'... except Buffy really can't. This episode has Buffy facing her mortality.
The scene with Willow and Xander in The Bronze segueways to a much younger and more vulnerable looking Buffy (she even has some curves and a touch of roundness in her cheeks). And Buffy is getting her ass kicked by your run-of-the-mill vampire. The look on her face, however, is an expression of total confidence. She's going to win this fight... and she does.
Of course, the older, wiser, and more cautious Giles realizes that Buffy is mortal, and that where there is danger, there is also death. Therefore it makes perfect sense that he is the one who first finds the prophecy of Buffy’s death.
Oddly, Giles appears shocked when Buffy blithely walks into the library the next morning (wearing a snakeskin mini-skirt that never would have passed dress codes for any high school that I ever knew of). Did Giles think Buffy had died in the earthquake? Surely not.
Or was he just weirded out by having read the prophecy the night before? And, finally, why not--you know--warn her (not that the young ever hear adult lectures on mortality.)
Buffy goes her merry way and is stunned when Xander asks her to the dance. He says, "I know we're friends, and we've had experiences. We've fought some blood-sucking fiends, and it's all been a good time. But I want more. I want to dance with you."
But Buffy's not feeling it.
Xander says he'll wait, but she doesn't seem enthused by the prospect. Xander snaps at her, makes a crack about Buffy’s attraction to the undead. She says he's being harsh, and Xander admits that he doesn’t handle rejection very well. Yeah, this is a pattern that becomes familiar through repetition. Meanwhile, Giles is sleepless and worried over matters of death and dying and Jenny Calendar arrives, having deduced an apocalypse is in the offing, and says, "The end is pretty seriously nigh."
Xander asks Willow to be his consolation date (never say that Xander isn't observant or supersensitive). And Willow says 'no' (Of course. He could not possibly have made it more obvious that she was being asked for consolation purposes only. No woman wants to be a consolation prize), which leaves the Xan-man to stew in his own juices. He does have a great exit line, though.
"I'm going to go home, lie down, and listen to country music... the music of pain."
Elsewhere, Buffy passes from light into shadows (literally and with ominous music to boot). As she gazes into the mirror, she at last receives a portent of death (the plumbing begins flowing with blood). It's time for Buffy to face her mortality.
When she arrives in the Library, she over hears the adults -- Giles and Angel -- discussing the likelihood of her death (fitting that this comes from the adults... because Angel is an adult. He has been all along, and this is something that Buffy doesn't really recognize. Hell, at this time in his life, it's something that Angel usually doesn't recognize).
Buffy gives a shaky, teary laugh (the laugh isn't exactly genuine or convincing, but then, whose would be under such circumstances?) Then SMG gives what is, for me, Buffy's most moving speech in the entire series:
"So that's it. I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, the next one is called. I wonder who she is." Buffy looks to Giles. "Will you train her? Or will they send someone else? Did it say how he was going to kill me?" Her voice becomes more vulnerable and childish. "Do you think it will hurt?"
She pulls away. "Don't touch me! Were you even going to tell me? "
Giles says he hoped that he wouldn't have to, that there would be some way around it ([exasperation]... without telling her? Oh, Giles, really. [/exasperation])
"I've got a way around it," she tells Angel and Giles. "I quit. I resign. I'm fired. You can find someone else to stop The Master from taking over. Read me the signs! Tell me my fortune!" She's furious and throwing things. She deals with stress through violence... even then (though this is rather benign violence. She doesn't actually hit him.) "You're so useful here, sitting with all of your books. You're really a lot of help. "
Angel tries to say he knows.
"What do you know about this?" she snaps. "You're never going to die."
When Angel and Giles say they'll find a way, she's angry and repeats that she's quitting. "Pay attention!"
Buffy then yanks the crucifix from around her neck. "I don't care!" Then... more quietly... "I don't care… Giles, I'm sixteen years old. I don't want to die."
This speech puts to shame any long-winded speech Buffy gave in Season 7. SMG's performance was strong. There is always shock and horror in facing the certain knowlege that some day you will die. There is always fear when facing your own mortality. It’s new to Buffy here. She’s young and this is a nearly otherworldly realization for someone who exists in a teen world, where there’s an overriding sense of invincibility and a belief in such a thing as ‘forever.’
She tosses her cross onto the floor (and, it's a big damn cross.)
Just by happenstance, I rewatched the X-Files episode "Ascension" the other day. ”Ascension” is the one where Scully was abducted and all that Mulder finds of her, after Duane Barry and then ‘they’ abduct her, is a small gold crucifix. Apart from the fact that Scully's cross is far more delicate, the image in “Ascension” and the image in “Prophecy Girl” share a striking similarity. Both Buffy and Mulder have crises where they are faced with the fact that they are not invicible. They don't always win, and they cannot necessarily make things turn out right. The cross on a broken chain seems to be a fairly iconic image for a loss of faith. However in these cases there's a irony here in that neither Mulder or Buffy lose faith in God. I'm not sure that either believe in the first place. Crucifix aside, they have lost faith in themselves.
Cut to: the image of Xander sprawled on his bed, listening to Patsy Cline. It's a pretty damn funny as a follow-up that cuts the tension. And then Joyce gives Buffy a prom dress -- white as a virginal sacrifice...
"I can't go to the dance," Buffy protests.
Joyce says, "Says who? You can do what you want."
Cordy's boyfriend is murdered and Willow wigs out. Teenagers die and Buffy, dressed in a virginal whitewedding gown prom dress with black leather jacket, goes to face death.
On a bright note, Jenny explains that if they open the Hellmouth, it brings the demons that destroy the world (Okay, that's not a bright note, but points for something that’s almost story continuity. I guess Ubies are the world-destroying demons in question. Except, ultimately, they were just sort of canon fodder demons, but still! ...it's sorta continuity, right? At least it's what passes for Jossian continuity. Hell, the whole hellmouth thing in Season 1 even had a crazy monk sending Jenny e-mails, and Jenny quoting scripture... so as terrible, awful, and trite as Caleb may have been, it's not like he came from nowhere. He was a germinating seed in Joss's subconscious for years... or at least he’s the conglomeration of ideas Joss liked to toy with (Or maybe that’s just Capt. Tightpants.)
Also, as an aside-- Dude! The make-up department was overworking the black liquid eyeliner and pastel shadow on Buffy. It reminds me of Anne Heche make-up from 1986! Also, it wasn't flattering... on Anne Heche or SMG.
Anyway, back to Prophecy Girl, Buffy punches Giles, knocks him out cold. She takes back her cross back before heading to the Hellmouth... which sort of reeks of old black and white horror movies (complete with soundtrack.) I'm pretty sure it's a Jossian homage. It's like Buffy is going down to meet the Phantom of the Opera or something. Only not the singing Phantom of hunky physique, but the gray one sitting at a pipe organ who rips his face off in the silent film and reveals himself as a lipless horror.
Xander runs for the black (but not leather) jacketed Angel in an effort to save Buffy.
Yeah, Angel's not really your best choice for bucking prophecies. At best, he’s all about prophecies. At worst he’s resigning himself to the impossibility of fate. And, at this particular juncture, he's in one of his "I can do nothing" phases, which seem to pop up from time to time (but this one must have been a nice long bout of ennui because didn't it start in the 1950s, when he left those people in the Hyperion with the infamous words, "I don't care"?)
Or maybe it's just that he's always existential angst-guy.
Anyway, yeah, we all know that after some lecturing from Xander (during which Angel concludes that Xander is in love with Buffy), Angel gets off his duff and decides he can play hero. (And, perhaps, when I first watched the show, it was this scene that convinced me that it was Xander/Normal Guy they were setting up to win Buffy in the end. Perhaps it was a Xander/Buffy conclusion I resisted. I cannot guarantee that this was the case. I honestly can no longer remember, who I thought the show was setting up as end-game guy. But I definitely thought I smelled an ongoing triangle when I saw this episode. . For a dropped storyline, they sure did lay the groundwork.
(Also, just a question. Where did Mr. Stink-in-an-alley Angel end up with Chinese art that he keeps in a secure, lighted in a glass case? Is it a souvenir of Shanghai 1900? Where did he keep it when he was chasing rats?)
The story continues with the Annointed One leading Buffy to a wet tunnel...
You know, if Joss had never mentioned the whole menstrual blood thing in his commentary Chosen, this never have crossed my mind (or --if it did--I would have dismissed the notion as bizarre) but Joss apparently sets up weird female images somtimes. And watching this sequence, I sort of wonder whether this entrance to the cave is some symbolic vagina.
Yeah. Weird theory. I know. But still... knowing what's to come, that Buff is more or less ‘reborn’ in that cave, and knowing that Joss isn’t above equating 'bleeding-on-a-seal” with menstrual blood, I don’t dismiss that Whedon using birth canal imagery.
Or not.
Anyway, with Phantom of the Opera theatrical lighting and watery sound effects, Buffy enters the Hellmouth to confront The Master.
"Oh good, the feable banter portion of the fight," The Master quips (I always like a villain with a sense of humor.) And...
Did The Master just disappear? Fly? Something? Suddenly, while talking to him, Buffy lost track of him. Weird.
And I must say that SMG looks exceedingly young in this sequence. Above and beyond the virginal white gown, her hair is drawn up in a curly pony tail and – I kid you not – her shoes look like white, patent leather Mary Janes! You know, the shoes your mother dressed you in for Sunday School with lace-edged frilly white socks… when you’re three! Or at least, if you’re a girl and your parents took you to Sunday School.)
Meanwhile Willow and Jenny are having a "Night of the Living Dead" moment in the high school parking lot.
Why are vampires suddenly behaving like zombies? Although, come to think of it, this set-up is also very like the scene where Mulder and Scully are trapped in a trailer park parking lot, being surrounded by vampires in the delightfully weird X-Files episode "Bad Blood". I always laugh at the scene where the vampire Sheriff tells Scully: " I really need to apologize to you. Ronnie makes [vampires] all look bad. He's just not who we are anymore. I mean, we pay taxes. We're good neighbors. Old Ronnie, he just can't grasp the concept of a low profile. But, even though he may be a moron, he is one of our own."
Willow's and Jenny's vampire confrontation isn't with the 'good neighbor' variety of vampire. I'm just wondering why they're zombie-like. That said, it is a suitably scary scene which gives a sense of menace to The Master's plan.
Back at the Vagina Monologues, The Master bests Buffy rather easily, placing her in his thrall.
So, hey, this thrall thing seems to be a rare talent for Buffyverse vamps. We only ever see The Master, Drusilla, and Dracula employ this tactic. It can’t be an age thing because Dru is younger than Angel. Does thrall imply that a vamp had some psychic ability in life? Or is it like being able to roll your tongue and it’s just genetics? (Or, more likely, is it just when it’s convenient for the script?).
The scene with The Master (as revolting as he is) still manages to have sexual overtones, with Buffy panting in her virginal whitewedding prom dress with its daring décolletage. The ew moment comes with his words "If you hadn't come, I couldn't go."
Did I mention -- ew?
Supertight close-up on Buffy's single tear just before The Master goes all bitey. With Buffy's head thrown back in the pose of most gothic romances/horror novels it's a familiar iconic image. The Master necks and leaves, dumping Buffy in a pool of water as he makes his get-away. Then it’s time for the infamous scene where Xander and Angel arrive to find Buffy dead.
Xander is able to resuscitate her, and Angel cannot. Not at all sure, that this is accurate on a physical level. Though isn't there something about carbon dioxide build-up in the resuscitation process triggering the victim to breathe? If so, maybe there is some logic behind Angel inability resuscitate Buffy, because it’s not really like he ”has no breath." He’s talking, isn’t he? Not that I’m overly concerned with the mechanics, because I seriously doubt that Joss was concerned with the mechanics. It was more about placing Xander and Angel at opposite ends of the spectrum with a living Xander and an undead Angel.
And, again, weird that BtVS set up this triangle only to abandon it almost immediately afterwards. (Though, looking at the scene, exactly why is Buffy dead? The Master could not have possibly taken enough blood to exsanguinatie her. And if she was exsanguinated, Xander couldn't have resuscitated her. So Buffy didn't die of blood loss. Did she simply faint from fear, land face-first in a puddle, and drown? Damn, that would have been a bummer way to die.)
Oh well. Having faced her own mortality-- actually, not only having faced death but actually having died-- a wet and wiggling Buffy is reborn in the womb of the Hellmouth. And she's stronger than ever before. Cue the heroic music and the power walk. (though Buffy and the Mary Janes! Ugh the Mary-freaking-Janes!)
Buffy says she feels different, and I wonder-- why? Is it a symbolic thing with Joss, having had her face her mortality, is she can longer be paralyzed by it? Or is it that the Slayer line has passed from Buffy (actually, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would that make her stronger? And yet every time Buffy dies, she seems to be stronger than she was before. Another of the mysteries of the Whedonverse. ) And she seems to now be able to intuit The Master as, when Xander asks where can they possibly find The Master, she cryptically says, "I know." (You know, there's probably some siring/claiming fanfic out there that addresses this).
And, surprise, Cordy is the one to save Willow and Jenny. Go Cordy!
The Hellmouth opens, but there's not an Ubie in sight, just this squid/Alien-parasite hybrid. Though the multiple heads of the creature look like a cross between the demon Spike fights to save Dawn in "Forever" and the penis monster Willow slays in "Doublemeat Palace." Finally, like a good mustache twirling villain, The Master stands on the roof observing it all.
The Master gasps when Buffy arrives to tell him, "I may be dead, but I'm still pretty." (And I know of a few vampires who could say the same). This time she's free of the Master’s thrall. Maybe having faced death and accepting that she can die, she's not as intimidated? Or something. (I'm now remembering a scene in Band of Brothers where one of the younger soldiers asking a fairly fearless Captain how is he not paralyzed by fear. The Captain tells the Private, "You just have to realize, we're already dead. After that, it's just doing your job." Wonder if in some way, this is similar.)
Well, at least Buffy has shed the ponytail, and she looks more adult now. She also kills the Master.
As a topper, everyone heads out to the Spring Fling dance, leaving only the skeleton of The Master behind (sort of the skeletal icon of death. I can see why Joss liked the symbolism of that final image, and I’m fairly certain that it was for symbolic reasons that he ended the episode with that skeleton...but within the Buffyverse, why do most vamps dust completely, but The Master's clothes and flesh dust leaving behind an undamaged skeleton?
Any reason given? I don't remember.
Also, was there any doubt about BtVS returning for a Season 2 at the time that ”Prophecy Girl” was penned? It serves as a season finale, but it feels like it could have also served as a series finale if there had been no season 2. Just wondering. Overall, I still give this episode high marks. It evokes a nostalgic feeling for when the show was fresh. It still has rough edges, but that’s the way of most tv shows. The early seasons of most shows have rough edges. As any series (be it drama or sitcom) plays out over many years, the aesthetics become increasingly slick and well-produced. Meanwhile, character traits (through repetition and reinforcement) become more pronounced and tend to become more extreme (if for no other reason than the simple fact that repetition has reinforced the trait so many times.) This is the natural life cycle of a show.
In this particular episode, the show and the characters are still young. SMG gives a strong performance throughout most of it (though I’m rarely a fan of the little girl voice and pout). Willow is sort of an afterthought. She seems rather insubstantial and isn’t used except to be terrified and to make doe-eyes at Xander.
On the other hand, Giles displays his best self. Though he didn't initially tell Buffy about the prophecy, he was willing to let Buffy quit Slaying, and he meant to face The Master alone. I prefer to think of this as the real -- non-pod -- Giles.
Finally, Angel may sometimes get a bad rap here. Usually it’s thought that he just went home and left Buffy to her fate. On rewatching, he really has no idea that she’s going out to meet The Master that night (not that he’s tripping over himself to defy fate once he does know). But, to be perfectly fair, the last time Angel spoke to Buffy, she had announced that she was quitting the whole Slaying thing. (Not that it’s possible to do that… except when activating a world full of Potentials.)
As a whole, the episode seems to revolve around a teen being forced to face the specter of her own mortality. Buffy isn't invincible, but she's made a better warrior by that harsh realization.
Grr! Argh!
I also have to admit that I cannot re-watch the series with the fresh eyes of a newbie. I've seen the entire series and know where the story is going. My rewatch will have the benefit of an overview of the series. The downside is that my rewatch will carry the baggage of an overview of the series.
Not that I didn't have baggage when I first watched BtVS.
I grew up watching soaps (Yeah, I know. Lame.) And I dipped in and out of various soaps depending on whether their stories caught my attention. Sarah Michelle Gellar's tenure on "All My Children" happened to coincide with a period of time when I watched "All My Children." I don't have clear memories of SMG's stint on AMC, and I'm unsure of whether I liked or hated SMG's character. I tend to think it was a bit of both. SMG's character was an egocentric young woman, so obsessed with being acknowledged by the mother who gave her up for adoption, that she ignored her loving adoptive parents and set out to make her biological mother's life hell. SMG's "Kendall" would have been unredeemable except for the fact that it was rather fun watching her abuse her biological (and frequently obnoxious) parent.
Oh, and then there was the age controversy. SMG was sixteen when she came onto All My Children. and viewers cried foul. There was no way for Erica Kane's daughter to be a teenager. There was a fandom kerfuffle and the show did a tapdance and a retcon which resulted in SMG’s sixteen year-old self being aged to twenty-three in the twinkling of an eye.
I bring all of this up, because I originally tuned into BtVS out of curiousity. I was used to seeing SMG play an adult villainess, and I wanted to see whether SMG could play a teen heroine. In "Prophecy Girl", SMG plays a heroine. So here we go, my thoughts while rewatching...
First off, looking the episode up on the net, Prophecy Girl first aired on June 2, 1997. The episode is nearly ten years old.
Time does fly, doesn't it? The entire cast looks so young. Starting with a young and rather handsome Nick Brendon, who opens the episode with Xander working up his nerve to ask Buffy for a date.
"You know how I feel about you. It's pretty obvious isn't it? There's never been anyone else -- for me..."
You know, there's actually a fair bit about Xander in those lines. In Season 1, it was fairly obvious how Xander felt about Buffy. I remember, on my first viewing of Season 1, that I had considered the show to be fairly transparent in the way it was setting up a Xander/Buffy/Angel triangle. Xander was the ‘good’, ‘normal’ guy and Angel was the 'mysterious' and dangerous one. Time has clouded what my initial feelings. I no longer remember which man’s side I was on when first watching Prophecy Girl, but I do remember feeling that the show sided with one character over the other. I also remember feeling that I was backing the dark horse. Except, at the moment, I’m not entirely sure which character I viewed as the dark horse. So, there you go, I've always been a storyline rebel.
Anyway, back to Xander. It was obvious how he felt about Buffy. And it sort of says something about Buffy that she doesn't notice. I don't think, at this point in her life, that her lack of notice says anything horrible about Buffy. She’s sixteen and wrapped up in a world of issues, so this isn’t "bad Buffy!" for not noticing Xander. It's just that he isn't on her radar.
However, Xander was practically falling over himself for her...not that Xander is any brighter. Willow gives him doe-eyes the entire time he's practicing his “Buffy, you wanna date?” speech… not that he notices either.
Listening to Xander’s practice speech makes me wonder whether the issues he’s bringing up in this scene are the ones which still linger when he dumps Anya at the altar in “Hell’s Bells.” The possessiveness in this scene never completely goes away, at least not through Season 6. In ”Prophecy Girl“ he discusses asking Buffy to the Spring Fling Dance by saying, "It's not just any dance. It's time for students to choose a mate..."
Er, not really, Xan-man, it's just a high school dance. However, I do find it interesting that there are thoughts of ‘forever’ when characters are so damn young. Was the show trying to work in a sense of destiny? Or was it is simply portraying the teen tendency to scribble each others name in notebooks with “X+Y=4Ever”? If it's the latter, maybe it fits with this episode as a whole.
Teens feel invincible, like they'll live forever. The young take risks that older and more experienced adults do not take… because we sense our own mortality. ("Hey! That could get me killed!") For teens, death is something a very long way away, and so they naively think in terms of 'forever'... except Buffy really can't. This episode has Buffy facing her mortality.
The scene with Willow and Xander in The Bronze segueways to a much younger and more vulnerable looking Buffy (she even has some curves and a touch of roundness in her cheeks). And Buffy is getting her ass kicked by your run-of-the-mill vampire. The look on her face, however, is an expression of total confidence. She's going to win this fight... and she does.
Of course, the older, wiser, and more cautious Giles realizes that Buffy is mortal, and that where there is danger, there is also death. Therefore it makes perfect sense that he is the one who first finds the prophecy of Buffy’s death.
Oddly, Giles appears shocked when Buffy blithely walks into the library the next morning (wearing a snakeskin mini-skirt that never would have passed dress codes for any high school that I ever knew of). Did Giles think Buffy had died in the earthquake? Surely not.
Or was he just weirded out by having read the prophecy the night before? And, finally, why not--you know--warn her (not that the young ever hear adult lectures on mortality.)
Buffy goes her merry way and is stunned when Xander asks her to the dance. He says, "I know we're friends, and we've had experiences. We've fought some blood-sucking fiends, and it's all been a good time. But I want more. I want to dance with you."
But Buffy's not feeling it.
Xander says he'll wait, but she doesn't seem enthused by the prospect. Xander snaps at her, makes a crack about Buffy’s attraction to the undead. She says he's being harsh, and Xander admits that he doesn’t handle rejection very well. Yeah, this is a pattern that becomes familiar through repetition. Meanwhile, Giles is sleepless and worried over matters of death and dying and Jenny Calendar arrives, having deduced an apocalypse is in the offing, and says, "The end is pretty seriously nigh."
Xander asks Willow to be his consolation date (never say that Xander isn't observant or supersensitive). And Willow says 'no' (Of course. He could not possibly have made it more obvious that she was being asked for consolation purposes only. No woman wants to be a consolation prize), which leaves the Xan-man to stew in his own juices. He does have a great exit line, though.
"I'm going to go home, lie down, and listen to country music... the music of pain."
Elsewhere, Buffy passes from light into shadows (literally and with ominous music to boot). As she gazes into the mirror, she at last receives a portent of death (the plumbing begins flowing with blood). It's time for Buffy to face her mortality.
When she arrives in the Library, she over hears the adults -- Giles and Angel -- discussing the likelihood of her death (fitting that this comes from the adults... because Angel is an adult. He has been all along, and this is something that Buffy doesn't really recognize. Hell, at this time in his life, it's something that Angel usually doesn't recognize).
Buffy gives a shaky, teary laugh (the laugh isn't exactly genuine or convincing, but then, whose would be under such circumstances?) Then SMG gives what is, for me, Buffy's most moving speech in the entire series:
"So that's it. I remember the drill. One Slayer dies, the next one is called. I wonder who she is." Buffy looks to Giles. "Will you train her? Or will they send someone else? Did it say how he was going to kill me?" Her voice becomes more vulnerable and childish. "Do you think it will hurt?"
She pulls away. "Don't touch me! Were you even going to tell me? "
Giles says he hoped that he wouldn't have to, that there would be some way around it ([exasperation]... without telling her? Oh, Giles, really. [/exasperation])
"I've got a way around it," she tells Angel and Giles. "I quit. I resign. I'm fired. You can find someone else to stop The Master from taking over. Read me the signs! Tell me my fortune!" She's furious and throwing things. She deals with stress through violence... even then (though this is rather benign violence. She doesn't actually hit him.) "You're so useful here, sitting with all of your books. You're really a lot of help. "
Angel tries to say he knows.
"What do you know about this?" she snaps. "You're never going to die."
When Angel and Giles say they'll find a way, she's angry and repeats that she's quitting. "Pay attention!"
Buffy then yanks the crucifix from around her neck. "I don't care!" Then... more quietly... "I don't care… Giles, I'm sixteen years old. I don't want to die."
This speech puts to shame any long-winded speech Buffy gave in Season 7. SMG's performance was strong. There is always shock and horror in facing the certain knowlege that some day you will die. There is always fear when facing your own mortality. It’s new to Buffy here. She’s young and this is a nearly otherworldly realization for someone who exists in a teen world, where there’s an overriding sense of invincibility and a belief in such a thing as ‘forever.’
She tosses her cross onto the floor (and, it's a big damn cross.)
Just by happenstance, I rewatched the X-Files episode "Ascension" the other day. ”Ascension” is the one where Scully was abducted and all that Mulder finds of her, after Duane Barry and then ‘they’ abduct her, is a small gold crucifix. Apart from the fact that Scully's cross is far more delicate, the image in “Ascension” and the image in “Prophecy Girl” share a striking similarity. Both Buffy and Mulder have crises where they are faced with the fact that they are not invicible. They don't always win, and they cannot necessarily make things turn out right. The cross on a broken chain seems to be a fairly iconic image for a loss of faith. However in these cases there's a irony here in that neither Mulder or Buffy lose faith in God. I'm not sure that either believe in the first place. Crucifix aside, they have lost faith in themselves.
Cut to: the image of Xander sprawled on his bed, listening to Patsy Cline. It's a pretty damn funny as a follow-up that cuts the tension. And then Joyce gives Buffy a prom dress -- white as a virginal sacrifice...
"I can't go to the dance," Buffy protests.
Joyce says, "Says who? You can do what you want."
Cordy's boyfriend is murdered and Willow wigs out. Teenagers die and Buffy, dressed in a virginal white
On a bright note, Jenny explains that if they open the Hellmouth, it brings the demons that destroy the world (Okay, that's not a bright note, but points for something that’s almost story continuity. I guess Ubies are the world-destroying demons in question. Except, ultimately, they were just sort of canon fodder demons, but still! ...it's sorta continuity, right? At least it's what passes for Jossian continuity. Hell, the whole hellmouth thing in Season 1 even had a crazy monk sending Jenny e-mails, and Jenny quoting scripture... so as terrible, awful, and trite as Caleb may have been, it's not like he came from nowhere. He was a germinating seed in Joss's subconscious for years... or at least he’s the conglomeration of ideas Joss liked to toy with (Or maybe that’s just Capt. Tightpants.)
Also, as an aside-- Dude! The make-up department was overworking the black liquid eyeliner and pastel shadow on Buffy. It reminds me of Anne Heche make-up from 1986! Also, it wasn't flattering... on Anne Heche or SMG.
Anyway, back to Prophecy Girl, Buffy punches Giles, knocks him out cold. She takes back her cross back before heading to the Hellmouth... which sort of reeks of old black and white horror movies (complete with soundtrack.) I'm pretty sure it's a Jossian homage. It's like Buffy is going down to meet the Phantom of the Opera or something. Only not the singing Phantom of hunky physique, but the gray one sitting at a pipe organ who rips his face off in the silent film and reveals himself as a lipless horror.
Xander runs for the black (but not leather) jacketed Angel in an effort to save Buffy.
Yeah, Angel's not really your best choice for bucking prophecies. At best, he’s all about prophecies. At worst he’s resigning himself to the impossibility of fate. And, at this particular juncture, he's in one of his "I can do nothing" phases, which seem to pop up from time to time (but this one must have been a nice long bout of ennui because didn't it start in the 1950s, when he left those people in the Hyperion with the infamous words, "I don't care"?)
Or maybe it's just that he's always existential angst-guy.
Anyway, yeah, we all know that after some lecturing from Xander (during which Angel concludes that Xander is in love with Buffy), Angel gets off his duff and decides he can play hero. (And, perhaps, when I first watched the show, it was this scene that convinced me that it was Xander/Normal Guy they were setting up to win Buffy in the end. Perhaps it was a Xander/Buffy conclusion I resisted. I cannot guarantee that this was the case. I honestly can no longer remember, who I thought the show was setting up as end-game guy. But I definitely thought I smelled an ongoing triangle when I saw this episode. . For a dropped storyline, they sure did lay the groundwork.
(Also, just a question. Where did Mr. Stink-in-an-alley Angel end up with Chinese art that he keeps in a secure, lighted in a glass case? Is it a souvenir of Shanghai 1900? Where did he keep it when he was chasing rats?)
The story continues with the Annointed One leading Buffy to a wet tunnel...
You know, if Joss had never mentioned the whole menstrual blood thing in his commentary Chosen, this never have crossed my mind (or --if it did--I would have dismissed the notion as bizarre) but Joss apparently sets up weird female images somtimes. And watching this sequence, I sort of wonder whether this entrance to the cave is some symbolic vagina.
Yeah. Weird theory. I know. But still... knowing what's to come, that Buff is more or less ‘reborn’ in that cave, and knowing that Joss isn’t above equating 'bleeding-on-a-seal” with menstrual blood, I don’t dismiss that Whedon using birth canal imagery.
Or not.
Anyway, with Phantom of the Opera theatrical lighting and watery sound effects, Buffy enters the Hellmouth to confront The Master.
"Oh good, the feable banter portion of the fight," The Master quips (I always like a villain with a sense of humor.) And...
Did The Master just disappear? Fly? Something? Suddenly, while talking to him, Buffy lost track of him. Weird.
And I must say that SMG looks exceedingly young in this sequence. Above and beyond the virginal white gown, her hair is drawn up in a curly pony tail and – I kid you not – her shoes look like white, patent leather Mary Janes! You know, the shoes your mother dressed you in for Sunday School with lace-edged frilly white socks… when you’re three! Or at least, if you’re a girl and your parents took you to Sunday School.)
Meanwhile Willow and Jenny are having a "Night of the Living Dead" moment in the high school parking lot.
Why are vampires suddenly behaving like zombies? Although, come to think of it, this set-up is also very like the scene where Mulder and Scully are trapped in a trailer park parking lot, being surrounded by vampires in the delightfully weird X-Files episode "Bad Blood". I always laugh at the scene where the vampire Sheriff tells Scully: " I really need to apologize to you. Ronnie makes [vampires] all look bad. He's just not who we are anymore. I mean, we pay taxes. We're good neighbors. Old Ronnie, he just can't grasp the concept of a low profile. But, even though he may be a moron, he is one of our own."
Willow's and Jenny's vampire confrontation isn't with the 'good neighbor' variety of vampire. I'm just wondering why they're zombie-like. That said, it is a suitably scary scene which gives a sense of menace to The Master's plan.
Back at the Vagina Monologues, The Master bests Buffy rather easily, placing her in his thrall.
So, hey, this thrall thing seems to be a rare talent for Buffyverse vamps. We only ever see The Master, Drusilla, and Dracula employ this tactic. It can’t be an age thing because Dru is younger than Angel. Does thrall imply that a vamp had some psychic ability in life? Or is it like being able to roll your tongue and it’s just genetics? (Or, more likely, is it just when it’s convenient for the script?).
The scene with The Master (as revolting as he is) still manages to have sexual overtones, with Buffy panting in her virginal white
Did I mention -- ew?
Supertight close-up on Buffy's single tear just before The Master goes all bitey. With Buffy's head thrown back in the pose of most gothic romances/horror novels it's a familiar iconic image. The Master necks and leaves, dumping Buffy in a pool of water as he makes his get-away. Then it’s time for the infamous scene where Xander and Angel arrive to find Buffy dead.
Xander is able to resuscitate her, and Angel cannot. Not at all sure, that this is accurate on a physical level. Though isn't there something about carbon dioxide build-up in the resuscitation process triggering the victim to breathe? If so, maybe there is some logic behind Angel inability resuscitate Buffy, because it’s not really like he ”has no breath." He’s talking, isn’t he? Not that I’m overly concerned with the mechanics, because I seriously doubt that Joss was concerned with the mechanics. It was more about placing Xander and Angel at opposite ends of the spectrum with a living Xander and an undead Angel.
And, again, weird that BtVS set up this triangle only to abandon it almost immediately afterwards. (Though, looking at the scene, exactly why is Buffy dead? The Master could not have possibly taken enough blood to exsanguinatie her. And if she was exsanguinated, Xander couldn't have resuscitated her. So Buffy didn't die of blood loss. Did she simply faint from fear, land face-first in a puddle, and drown? Damn, that would have been a bummer way to die.)
Oh well. Having faced her own mortality-- actually, not only having faced death but actually having died-- a wet and wiggling Buffy is reborn in the womb of the Hellmouth. And she's stronger than ever before. Cue the heroic music and the power walk. (though Buffy and the Mary Janes! Ugh the Mary-freaking-Janes!)
Buffy says she feels different, and I wonder-- why? Is it a symbolic thing with Joss, having had her face her mortality, is she can longer be paralyzed by it? Or is it that the Slayer line has passed from Buffy (actually, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Why would that make her stronger? And yet every time Buffy dies, she seems to be stronger than she was before. Another of the mysteries of the Whedonverse. ) And she seems to now be able to intuit The Master as, when Xander asks where can they possibly find The Master, she cryptically says, "I know." (You know, there's probably some siring/claiming fanfic out there that addresses this).
And, surprise, Cordy is the one to save Willow and Jenny. Go Cordy!
The Hellmouth opens, but there's not an Ubie in sight, just this squid/Alien-parasite hybrid. Though the multiple heads of the creature look like a cross between the demon Spike fights to save Dawn in "Forever" and the penis monster Willow slays in "Doublemeat Palace." Finally, like a good mustache twirling villain, The Master stands on the roof observing it all.
The Master gasps when Buffy arrives to tell him, "I may be dead, but I'm still pretty." (And I know of a few vampires who could say the same). This time she's free of the Master’s thrall. Maybe having faced death and accepting that she can die, she's not as intimidated? Or something. (I'm now remembering a scene in Band of Brothers where one of the younger soldiers asking a fairly fearless Captain how is he not paralyzed by fear. The Captain tells the Private, "You just have to realize, we're already dead. After that, it's just doing your job." Wonder if in some way, this is similar.)
Well, at least Buffy has shed the ponytail, and she looks more adult now. She also kills the Master.
As a topper, everyone heads out to the Spring Fling dance, leaving only the skeleton of The Master behind (sort of the skeletal icon of death. I can see why Joss liked the symbolism of that final image, and I’m fairly certain that it was for symbolic reasons that he ended the episode with that skeleton...but within the Buffyverse, why do most vamps dust completely, but The Master's clothes and flesh dust leaving behind an undamaged skeleton?
Any reason given? I don't remember.
Also, was there any doubt about BtVS returning for a Season 2 at the time that ”Prophecy Girl” was penned? It serves as a season finale, but it feels like it could have also served as a series finale if there had been no season 2. Just wondering. Overall, I still give this episode high marks. It evokes a nostalgic feeling for when the show was fresh. It still has rough edges, but that’s the way of most tv shows. The early seasons of most shows have rough edges. As any series (be it drama or sitcom) plays out over many years, the aesthetics become increasingly slick and well-produced. Meanwhile, character traits (through repetition and reinforcement) become more pronounced and tend to become more extreme (if for no other reason than the simple fact that repetition has reinforced the trait so many times.) This is the natural life cycle of a show.
In this particular episode, the show and the characters are still young. SMG gives a strong performance throughout most of it (though I’m rarely a fan of the little girl voice and pout). Willow is sort of an afterthought. She seems rather insubstantial and isn’t used except to be terrified and to make doe-eyes at Xander.
On the other hand, Giles displays his best self. Though he didn't initially tell Buffy about the prophecy, he was willing to let Buffy quit Slaying, and he meant to face The Master alone. I prefer to think of this as the real -- non-pod -- Giles.
Finally, Angel may sometimes get a bad rap here. Usually it’s thought that he just went home and left Buffy to her fate. On rewatching, he really has no idea that she’s going out to meet The Master that night (not that he’s tripping over himself to defy fate once he does know). But, to be perfectly fair, the last time Angel spoke to Buffy, she had announced that she was quitting the whole Slaying thing. (Not that it’s possible to do that… except when activating a world full of Potentials.)
As a whole, the episode seems to revolve around a teen being forced to face the specter of her own mortality. Buffy isn't invincible, but she's made a better warrior by that harsh realization.
Grr! Argh!
