Re: 'The Witch' Discussion

["Howard Russell" <howardrussell2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Everybody!

It's far past the time for me to discuss my take on the episode "The Witch."  (Damn you, Real Life!)  But anyway, here I go.

This, the second episode--counting the two-hour pilot episode as a single--jumps right in with a non-vampire threat.  This establishes the slayer as more of a supernatural cop.  A lot of responsibility for a teen.


Facts revealed in this episode for us Canon Cops:
Buffy was a cheerleader back at Hemery.  She quit before the trouble started.  Whether that means she quit when she became the slayer or only before she started to get into trouble publicly is unclear.

Buffy has been a slayer for 'more than a year' now.  That places her being chosen somewhere around her fifteenth birthday.

Xander is short for Alexander.  A short form of the name that's never been explained in the series but I've read some really good fanfic reasons.

The first time Giles gets knocked unconscious!  The first in a long line.

Here's an oft-neglected bit of foreshadowing: Willow makes her first potion in this episode.  Willowy witchcraft in every season.

Two things in opposition to future episodes:
Giles says it's his first spell.  Eyghon would disagree.

Drunken Buffy slips and mentions being a vampire slayer to her mother.  Joyce doesn't react like someone who had her delusional daughter committed for believing in vampires.  (I'm gonna be harping on this one a lot because I really didn't like the back-story in "Normal Again."  Too many early episodes invalidate it.)


General Episode things:

There is still a certain amount of hostility between Giles and Buffy.  I think scenes like this is where the 'Giles as a father figure' comes from.  She goes to him for approval, then argues against his disapproval.  To a certain extent, she cares what he thinks, but she isn't going to be ruled by it.  Notice how amused she is by his discomfort.  Fairly standard teen/parent interaction.

Episode trivia: They comment that Amber (the cheerleader that trained with Benson, not Amber Benson) had been offered a position as a Laker's cheerleader.  Charisma Carpenter was in fact, herself, an NFL cheerleader for the San Diego Chargers before joining the Buffy cast.

By the way, if Amber Grove is supposed to be such a talented cheerleader as to have already been recruited by an NFL team, why does she have to audition?

Note Buffy's first and only use of the word "Jeepers."  Was this Sarah Michelle Geller's audition piece for Daphne in Scooby Doo?

Willow does more illegal hacking in this episode.  I love how eager she is to commit a crime to help her Buffy.  Okay, I know how true hackers really view their information gathering activities, but still...

How can a girl who spends the entire episode in sixties retro fashions, not recognize Gidget hair?

Notice the scene where Willow is gnawing on a pen.  How inappropriate for her to have an oral fixation like that.  I only mention this because it isn't really part of her character.  I mean, pen chewing is a good nervous habit for a character like hers, but it isn't in any other episode.  They just put it in here for a really weird analogy.

Also notice the teacher, Dr. Gregory.  Kudos to Mutant Enemy for showing him in an episode before the one he gets killed in.  That's rare in television.


Wiffy/femslash things:

Notice that when Xander pauses to stare at a cheerleader, ("Ooh, stretchy!") Willow pauses to stare at her as well.  Knowing what the future holds for our Young Hacker, this scene is telling.  Sadly, Buffy just walks off.  Aww.

Also, right before Amber catches on fire, they show Buffy looking at Amber, then Xander doing the same.  Notice that they both have the same look on their faces...

I may be a total perv, but I really enjoyed the shots up Buffy's cheerleader skirt.  I'm sure Willow did too.

Xander asks Willow, "Would you ask her out for me?" A long time ago, someone suggested that a fic could be written off that.  Too bad nobody's done that yet...

Willow instantly went to the semi-nude engravings in the witchcraft books.  Obviously she's looked at them too.

This episode is full of all sorts of femslashy indicators from Buffy.  Notice the many times that Buffy is paying attention to the women around her and completely ignoring Xander.  Buffy spends a lot of time talking to Amy (Katherine), long before she becomes a suspect.  When Xander tries to ask Buffy out, she's busy staring at Cordelia.  Buffy finally proclaims her love of Xander...because he's totally one of the girls.

Willow is all about worrying about Buffy.  Mucho supporting and comforting when Buffy is under the spell.  Then there's Willow with a baseball bat screaming, "Where is she?"  Seems she wants vengeance herself.  Well, she is offered the position of vengeance demon eventually.

Back to the sixties fashions, when Amy is returned to her own body, she joins Buffy in the retro look.  Hmm.  They're semi-coordinated too.  Up until then, Buffy had been in more mod fashions, but in the end scene, the two of them are in hippie clothes.

Actually, there is quite a bit of gender confusion in this episode.  Xander called Willow a guy and Buffy called Xander a girl.  Also, Buffy sang that she wanted to be a man...a macho man at that!


Fic Ideas:
Comments like those above could lead a teen to have nightmares.  Imagine a rewrite of the upcoming episode "Nightmares" where Willow becomes a guy and Xander turns into a girl.  How would Buffy react to guy-Willow?  How would guy-Willow react to an attentive, flirty Buffy?  What about after their genders are returned to normal?  Just a thought.

Then there's the drunken Buffy under the Bloodstone Vengeance spell.  There was a whole slew of fics that had season four Cave-Buffy pouncing on Willow, how about some drunken admissions here?  What if after telling why she loves Xander, she went on to say why she loves Willow?  She's all loopy and quite free with her words at the time.  Oh, the possibilities.


Until next time.

Your fellow 'shipper,
Howard

Simulcast on BWW and The WD.

--
"When Schrodinger's cat's away, the mice may or may not play, no one can tell." -- Francis Heaney, Modern Humorist

http://www.geocities.com/howardrussell2000/


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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     --'Choices'

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