Buffy Season 1 Overview S1 E13

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Buffy and the Art of Story Podcast CoverThis week on Buffy and the Art of Story: Buffy Season 1 Overview.

Along with best and favorite plot turns from Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this episode covers my favorite (1) One-Off Villain; (2) Red Herring;  (3) Single Episode Character Killed & more.

As always, the discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).

Sorry, no Season 1 DVD commentary for the Buffy Season 1 Overview.  

In 2 Weeks: When She Was Bad S2 E1

Last Week:  Prophecy Girl S1 E12 

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Bio

Lisa M. Lilly is the author of the bestselling four-book Awakening supernatural thriller series and the Q.C. Davis mysteries. She also wrote the short-story collection The Tower Formerly Known as Sears and Two Other Tales of Urban Horror, the title story of which was made into the short film Willis Tower.

In addition to fiction, Lilly writes non-fiction under L.M. Lilly.

Her books on writing include The One-Year Novelist: A Week-By-Week Guide To Writing Your Novel In One Year; Creating Compelling Characters From The Inside Out; Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting & Writing Your Novel; and Happiness, Anxiety, and Writing: Using Your Creativity To Live A Calmer, Happier Life.

She is also the founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.

Episode Transcript for Season 1 Overview

Hello and welcome to Buffy and the art of story.

If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you love creating stories, or just taking them apart to see how they work, you’re in the right place.

I am Lisa M Lilly author of the Awakening Supernatural Thriller Series and the Q.C. Davis mysteries and founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.

I’m so excited to be talking about the whole of Season 1, including some favorite moments and what I think are the strongest plot turns in the story. Also, I’ll cover:

  • the best villain in a one-off episode
  • the best red herring
  • my favorite single episode character who gets killed and
  • a few more favorites and bests

As always, there will be no spoilers except at the end to talk about foreshadowing, but I’ll give you plenty of warning.

Okay, let’s dive into the Hellmouth.

Opening Conflict: Out Of Mind Out Of Sight

Starting with of course, my favorite opening conflict.

I want to say that it is Xander asking Willow out in Prophecy Girl, where he isn’t really asking her out. He is practicing to ask out Buffy. It’s such a wonderful character moment for Willow in particular, and I really enjoy that.

However, probably the strongest opening in the sense of truly signaling our main plot and bringing us into Buffy’s experience, is the one in Out Of Mind Out Of Sight. That was the episode about the invisible girl, Episode 11. As you probably remember, other than that it wasn’t my favorite episode. Or the one I thought was the strongest. But I was surprised how often it came up in particular moments.

And this is one.

Because in the very beginning we have Cordelia with her popular friends talking about the Spring Fling. She’s so excited about her dress she’s having made. And so certain, shall be Queen, she’s already planning for it. And then we have Buffy almost crashing into the scene.

She stumbles. She falls on the floor in front of Cordelia and her friends and her bag of weapons spills out and she struggles to explain it. Cordelia and her friends laugh at her.

It is such a moving moment for Buffy. It really epitomizes the conflict of the entire series. Maybe saying the entire series is really strong, but certainly of the first season, and we will see it return.

It’s not just the normal girl or the normal life versus the supernatural, but also her loss of her old life. When she was the girl getting ready for Spring Fling or the prom with nothing but dresses in boys on her mind. And where her peers saw her as that popular girl rather than as Cordelia would probably say “this weirdo.”

It just encapsulates that for the season and for the episode, which is about the outcast in society.

Second Choice For Opening Conflict: The Witch

My close second is The Witch. Giles is kind of almost ranting to Buffy, lecturing to her about her sacred duty and the importance of it. And now she’s gone and enslaved herself to this cult.

We switch to Buffy in a cheerleading outfit. The looks on both their faces are just so wonderful. Giles looks so annoyed. And he’s at the point he doesn’t know Buffy that well and he’s seeing her is frivolous and not taking this seriously. Buffy is giving this pouty sort of look.

It does really draw in the conflicts of the series in such a fun way.

Favorite Story Spark: I, Robot…You, Jane

Moving on to our Story Spark or Inciting Incident. It usually comes about 10% into the episode in any book or movie or pretty much any story that you consume. In most of them at 10% is this incident that sets off the story. The one I thought was the strongest — again, interestingly, was in an episode that I didn’t overall think was one of the best — I, Robot…You, Jane.

In it, Willow is scanning in the book where Moloch has been trapped, the demon. But she’s not really looking at the book she’s scanning. She’s just scanning them in. And she doesn’t see that it’s strange writing or that it disappears off the page. But we see it as the audience member.

We get this moment where we close up on the screen of this big old clunky computer. Which at the time would not have been old. It was cutting-edge. And we get the words Where Am I? across the screen in that old-style text. When that was the only font that there was. I love that as the opening conflict because there is so much there in the scene we have.

Obviously, it is clearly the Inciting Incident. The fact that Moloch, who was bound into this book for centuries, is now released. But not just released — released into the Internet, something that did not exist, that he couldn’t even have imagined.

Willow’s Opening Conflict in I, Robot…You, Jane

Also, it sets off Willow’s opening conflict. Her feelings of isolation because she’s here alone in the library. It’s dark, like so many places in Sunnydale often are. But our library usually is not. It is usually lit in warm tones. We have a number of people there. We feel that our core characters feel very safe there.

And here we have Willow, this time by herself. It’s late, it’s dark, she scanning books. While I am sure she really is glad to be helping and doesn’t mind doing it, it highlights how she too is set apart and isolated.

We focus a lot in the series about Buffy being isolated, or at least that is what is talked about. The one girl in all the world. But aside from Xander and Buffy, we don’t see Willow having other friends either.

She has this crush on Xander, and he doesn’t return her feelings. So she is in that sense to sort of left out and alone. It is this perfect set up for Moloch, this demon, to pose as a boy and win Willow’s heart.

That is why I see this as such a strong Opening Conflict because — not Opening Conflict — such a strong Story Spark because it begins both stories. Our main plot about Moloch trying to wreak havoc and take over the world, and what I think is the real plot in the episode. His drawing Willow in, and Willow having to step back and reject him.

Favorite One Quarter Twist: Angel

On to my favorite One Quarter Twist. This is the first plot turn, generally coming from outside the protagonist and spinning the story in a new direction. Often at one quarter through an episode, sometimes a little bit later, sometimes a little bit earlier.

In Angel, Episode 7, Angel stays the night with Buffy. They talk as he is lying on her floor. She’s lying in bed, he’s lying on the floor.

It is the first long conversation they’ve had. It’s the first one we’ve seen them have that goes in depth about anything personal. Up until that point, he is just dropping by warning her about something, looking good, and disappearing. This really starts to bond them beyond just that they both are intrigued by the other and find the other attractive.

Even though we find out later so much about Angel that Buffy wishes she didn’t know, if you trace back, everything he says to her is true. He is definitely editing the truth. But there is some real intimacy there. And it is pivotal to turning the episode in a new direction.

It turns Buffy’s and Angel’s relationship. It leads to the reveal that he is a vampire. And it pushes him on this path of having to face how is he going to live. That plays into the Masters goal of both defeating Buffy, but bringing Angel back into the fold.

Close Second for One Quarter Twist: The Pack

My close second is The Pack. It is right about that dodgeball scene in gym class where the pack, the hyenas, are with Xander on one side. Willow and Buffy are on the other. Xander up to this point has been acting strangely. He sniffs Buffy’s hair, he’s been a little bit mean making fun of other kids.

But this is the first time he is so mean to Willow.

He throws the ball straight at her, really hard to get her out. That is such a key thing in their relationship arc in that episode. And it turns the story because Willow reacts to it by thinking, okay, he doesn’t want me around anymore, which he then tells her.

Buffy on the other hand, him being so mean to Willow is what tells her this isn’t Xander.

Favorite Midpoint Commitment

My favorite Midpoint commitment really has to be Prophecy Girl. I had to try hard not to name Prophecy Girl for everything. Part of it is because it is such a pivotal episode. Also, it’s the one I watched most recently, so it came most readily to mind.

But after looking through my notes and thinking about the episodes, I feel it Prophecy Girl really earns this Midpoint.

We see Buffy truly committing to her quest and throwing caution to the wind. Because she’s been trying to get her mother to leave town. She is saying that she quit, she’s not going to face the Master because she doesn’t want to die. But she sees she Willow, how disturbed Willow is. She hears what Willow says about it not being our world anymore, it being theirs.

And when Willow says what are we going to do, Buffy says “What we have to.”

And that’s the moment when she vows that she will probably die but she will take the Master with her if she can. There is no greater commitment than that.

Reversal in Retrospect: The Pack

I noticed something when I was going through the transcript of The Pack. (One of my nieces has been editing the transcripts for me. Thank you so much to her for that.) And I looked at The Pack. I realized there is a major reversal in there that I did not point to as a reversal when I was doing the episode because it comes much later.

It is not at the Midpoint, it’s closer to more like the three-quarter point where the pack attacks in its Principal Flutie.

This is really a major reversal for Buffy. You’re probably thinking, yes, pretty big reversal for Principal Flutie as well. And yes, of course, the most key for him. Also for the pack. It’s a commitment for them and they’re going all in on the hyena thing. But it is a major reversal for Buffy because she was not able to sort it out and stop this terrible thing from happening.

We don’t deal with this in the episode, but it’s a reversal that she could not stop these students from doing this thing that really is a point of no return for them. So I think that’s a major reversal that is in an odd place.

Maybe because that isn’t that is the story that the writers were telling. But I do think in retrospect that is a little bit of or maybe another reason why that episode, much as there’s lots of good stuff in it, for me doesn’t quite work as well as so many other Buffy episode.

Favorite Reversal: Angel

Still, my favorite reversal in terms of emotional arc and the overall story of Buffy is the Angel reversal. When she discovers that he is a vampire. Because it really just seems like there is no answer to that. He vamps out, she sees it for herself. She can’t deny this and it really seems there is no solution to it.

So that also is such a strong reversal because it’s not just of Buffy trapped in this coffin this vampire’s looming over her. We can imagine how she is going to get out of that, that there’s some way she can fight. She can use some great move for dodging away.

But with Buffy and Angel, she’s the Slayer, he is a vampire. It’s hard to see how that can ever be worked out.

Best Three-Quarter Turn: Buffy Dies

Moving on to the three-quarter turn. So this is the plot point, generally about three quarters through the episode, sometimes a little bit later earlier, but it comes from the Midpoint, typically from the actions of the protagonist. And yet it turns the story in another new direction.

So we’ve got another spin to the story, but this one usually comes from the protagonist’s actions or it grows out of and is related to that Midpoint Reversal. My favorite, again here I have to go back to Prophecy Girl. Because Buffy dies, and I don’t know how you get a stronger three-quarter turn that — our protagonist dying.

And that comes directly from her commitment at the Midpoint to go down and face the Master. Even though she knows it’s foretold that she will die, and Giles thinks there’s no wiggle room around that, and she does in fact die.

In most stories, at least at the time that was told, that just would never happen. You know you can’t kill your protagonist at the three-quarter point of your story.

And it does spin everything in a new direction. Xander revives her. She feels renewed and has more strength and purpose, and she’s not afraid anymore. And she goes and confronts and kills the Master.

Subtle Second Three-Quarter Turn: The Pack

My close second – oddly, I think, given that it wasn’t one of my favorite episodes — is The Pack. I really like this one because it is subtle. It is when Giles and Buffy and the zookeeper are talking, and Giles inadvertently gives zookeeper the missing piece. Because he and Buffy don’t know the zookeeper is the one who drew the designs on the floor outside the hyena cage. And he is the one who is been trying to purposely create the spell so that he can harness that power for himself.

But he didn’t know that there needed to be predatory act. And it does drive the rest of the story, it spins it in a new way. Because now we have him figure out ways to lure in all the hyena kids to the area of the cage. And it’s what pushes him to do a predatory act.

Now I don’t know that this guy needed much pushing to do one, but it is what tells him that’s what he needs to complete his spell.

So this really moves the story in a new way.

And a Three-Quarter Turn for Willow

It’s also a wonderful episode for the Three-Quarter Turn because there is a very strong one in the Willow-Xander friendship subplot. Three quarters is right around where Willow is going closer and closer to the cage where they’ve imprisoned Xander. We don’t know this, but she inside is trying to figure out in her heart, how much in there is Xander and how much is the hyena. And he is trying to lure her closer, saying everything that she wants to hear from him.

He thinks he’s tricking her. But she is purposely getting close so that he will lunge for the key and try to hurt her if he is pretty much all hyena. And that is what he does. And she says, “Now I know.”

So I love that as well because it shows how smart Willow is. That gets her the answer and it had to just be so hard for her to do that.

Last Plot Point: Climax

Our last plot point is the climax. This was so hard to pick one.

Nightmares

I love the climax in Nightmares because it’s kind of a double one. There is the Buffy part where she literally has to face the ugly guy this giant guy with a club, or that and she is turned into a vampire, which is one of her greatest fears. She’s been hiding in the shadows both to get away from him and then, kind of, from herself. Not wanting to accept that this is happened to her. And she embraces the power of that and fights him off.

She also is able to help give the little boy Billy the strength to come out of the coma and see who it was who did this to him — who he is really afraid of — and confront his coach.

The Witch

I also love the climax of The Witch because we get this true teamwork.

We see Giles casting out the spell to put Amy and her mother back. And save Buffy who is dying. We see Buffy immediately gather her strength, fight Amy’s mom, and do it in such a way that she is not killing a human. Willow and Xander don’t do that much to fight off Amy’s mom. But they do everything they can, from trying to fight her, running after her, grabbing the — I think it’s the axe or maybe the fire extinguisher.

And this is a great example of your characters do not have to be super people. They need to, at a certain point in the story they need to do everything they possibly can with the strength the power and the resources they have. And both Willow and Xander are really acting that their capacity here.

Prophecy Girl

I love that climax of Prophecy Girl for obvious reasons. Because we have Buffy confronting this villain who has been there throughout the season. Whom she has been so afraid of, and she gets past that and wins the fight. That of course is a wonderful climax. She faces death, although that actually happens before the climax. So I guess we can’t technically put that in the climax of Prophecy Girl.

So let’s just say she does it after dying and coming back to life.

And the Winner Is

If I have to pick a favorite, I think I would have to go with Nightmares because in a way I feel like that particular fight was so hard for Buffy. Because she became something she really feared. She became a vampire which she was so afraid of. Being able to embrace and use that power, I think was amazing.

Absolute Favorite Falling Action: The Puppet Show

Favorite falling action, where we tie up the loose ends, absolutely has to be The Puppet Show. On two counts.

First, after the demon is killed, Sid — the guy who’s trapped in the ventriloquist dummy – has been stabbed in the heart, so he’s been released and now his spirit is gone. He’s dead. It’s just a dummy again.

And we get this wonderful moment where the curtain comes up. Because they’re on the talent show stage. You have what does look, as Principal Snyder says, a little bit like some sort of abstract art type of thing, avante guard, because they’re all frozen. Buffy’s holding the dummy. And there’s this demon with his brain chopped off, and a knife in his heart, lying in guillotine, and I think Willow’s holding an axe. All of them have this deer in the headlights look.

Then, two, the cherry on the sundae. We get the post credit sequence where Buffy and Xander and Willow are doing their dramatic scene reading. And they are just so bad.

So that is no question my favorite Falling Action in all of Season 1.

Falling Action in the Pilot

My close second is The Harvest, part two of the pilot. We hear Giles saying that people forget what they can and rationalize what they can’t forget so that they can make sense of these things. They’re not going to remember that Buffy was slaying vampires. And then we get an example where Cordelia is talking to her friends and doing exactly that. She says there was a gang, and Buffy knew them and everything.

I love it because it’s an illustration and because it contains so much foreshadowing.

We get that little hint of admiration. Cordelia liked Buffy in the beginning, then thought she was really weird and strange. And both those things are still there. She has this little admiration for Buffy. It suggests that they will perhaps connect again.

And we see that Cordelia keeps this idea in her head that maybe Buffy knows gang members or is in a gang because in Out Of Mind Out Of Sight she comes to Buffy for help when she realizes that people around her are being hurt. And says, “Oh, I thought maybe you were in a gang.”

More on Story Structure

That covers the story structure parts of the Season 1 overview.

If you want more on this story structure that I’ve been using throughout the season and will continue to use, and you would like to hear it in audio, my book Super Simple Story Structure A Quick Guide To Plotting And Writing Your Novel is available in audiobook form. You can either go to Audible and find it, or you can ask for it at your local library. Because I do distribute it to Findaway Voices, which makes audiobooks available in all sorts of distribution channels and websites, and including libraries.

So you can get that for free and check it out and listen to it.

Favorite Quotes of Buffy Season 1

Moving on to some other favorite things.

My favorite quote of the season does come from Prophecy Girl. It is Joyce’s telling Buffy to go to the dance. Why can’t she go to the dance, is it written somewhere, you should do what you want.

And I love this for all the reasons I said in that episode. It really speaks to who Buffy ultimately it is. And when she later says, “I flunked the written,” Buffy is not going to just accept what authority figures tell her, or what has been decreed for her. She will use what she can to fight and do what she needs to do. She’s not going to ignore what could help her, but she is going to find her own way.

Favorite One-Off Villains

My favorite one-off villain in a single episode story arc is from Nightmares.

But it isn’t the ugly guy or the coach but the real villain there, which was fear. It was characters’ own fears being used against them, and I thought that was such a strong villain.

My second favorite is Amy’s mom.

I have forgotten her name now, I know I said it in the episode. I love it because it layers in so much about parents and children. And because her motives are ones that many people have. That desire to push someone else to do something that you could not do or you did do but wish you could continue. That kind of inability to separate what you want from this other person here.

Yes, it’s taken to the extreme, but I think that it’s done so well.

Favorite Red Herring

My favorite red herring is Principal Snyder in The Puppet Show. All mysteries have various suspects who we consider could be the ones who did it. And Principal Snyder works so well because he is so antagonistic to Buffy. I think is my favorite because he’s just so open about he doesn’t like students.

He’s very well motivated. If we look at that episode, knowing that he is not the villain, everything he says still works.

And it gets across who he is so clearly. He is law and order over chaos. He sees teenagers as sort of intrinsically agents of chaos. And he distrusts them all. He particularly focuses on Buffy and her friends because he sees them as part of the problem. And he doesn’t distinguish between, he doesn’t care about, motives I don’t think. He wants order. And this all fits with everything he says and does.

He could be the villain in that piece. Or he could be the principal that he is, with views that he has. So that’s why I like him so much as a red herring and it makes him such an interesting character.

What Happened to Dr. Gregory?

My favorite character who is killed off in a one-off episode is Doctor Gregory.

He is from Teacher’s Pet the preying mantis episode. He was the teacher who encouraged Buffy. I liked him so much because that scene when he is telling her she’s smart and imagine what she could do if she did the homework, it comes after a moment in class where he’s asking questions. Buffy hasn’t done the reading, and Willow is trying to signal her the answers. Buffy is mostly figuring them out.

And what I love is Doctor Gregory could have yelled at her for not doing the reading. He could consider it cheating that she is pretending she’s done the reading and her friend is trying to give her the answers. Some teachers might have yelled at her for that.

Instead, he sees that Buffy is very smart. He looks for what her talents are, what her strengths are. Rather than coming down on her for what she doesn’t do, he highlights what she is good at and how smart she is and motivates her that way. And it truly does motivate her.

He isn’t saying: You’re letting me down. He’s saying, you are smart, you have the strengths, you can do so much. I love that about him. So of course he gets killed. Which I guess the lesson is in Buffy don’t be that great teacher.

Good-bye Principal Flutie

My favorite character who doesn’t survive the season is of course Principal Flutie. And yes, I really created this character of this category just for him. I don’t know that there is another character who is killed off, who wasn’t part of one-off episode.

We had Jesse, but he was killed off in our pilot, which was a self-contained story. I think all the other victims like Doctor Gregory were killed off as part of a one-episode story. They aren’t ongoing characters through the season.

And Principal Flutie, we see him a few times, backspace. Which is why I started thinking of him as a regular. And I like him so much. He, too, encouraged Buffy and seemed like someone who really cared about the students. He had a lot of integrity.

As much as I enjoy Principal Snyder – he is a great character – I am sorry we didn’t get to see Principal Flutie a little bit longer.

And maybe Herbert is my close second for one-off death. Herbert the pig. Because he was very cute and Principal Flutie was a little afraid of him. But you could see that there was no reason to be, so Herbert the pig. We hardly knew ye. I really enjoyed him as a one-off character who gets killed off in a single episode.

Those are all of my favorites that I drew from Season 1.

I will do a spoiler section so I hope you will hang on for that.

Next Week: When She Was Bad

If not, come back for the beginning of Season 2 Episode 1, When She Was Bad.. I’m so excited about that. When Buffy gets back from her summer vacation and has to deal with her issues over having died.

I also like this episode because the conflict between Buffy and her friends seems very real to me. And I have not rewatched this yet. So I am predicting I will find the story structure very strong. We will see about that. Sometimes I’m surprised.

What I do specifically remember is there is so much in that first episode that really foreshadows the whole season arc that I did not see the first time I watched it.

Once I knew what was coming, when I rewatched once the DVDs were available it made me love Buffy even more. Because I saw that storytelling and how well put together that was that.

Of course that will be in the spoiler section for that show.

So please come back in two weeks. I am taking out one extra week off to get ready for Season 2. But I will be back in two weeks on Monday.

Coming Soon: Jessica Jones for Patrons

I will also be working on. I don’t know when I will have it released, but a Patreon- only breakdown of the pilot episode of Jessica Jones. So if you are patron you will be able to listen to that. I will let you know when it is available. As always, thank you so much for listening. And if you do want hear spoilers hang on for just a moment.

Spoilers 

And we’re back for spoilers. Going back to my favorite villain from Nightmares, which was fear, we will see fear as more or less as the villain in Season 4 in the Fear Itself episode.

Fear

That was the Halloween episode where our characters go to a haunted house, put together by a fraternity.

In my recollection, I do not love that episode nearly as much as I liked Nightmares.. I felt like it did deal with some very real fear. Willow’s fears simultaneously about maybe being more powerful with witchcraft than she can handle, but also being afraid that she’s not learning enough, that she isn’t very good at it. We see that manifested.

Oz fears that he will turn into a werewolf when he isn’t expecting it. He is learning to manage it at that point by locking himself up. But his fear that it will take over and he won’t be able to stop it.

Xander’s fears about his life being different from that of his friends. They’re in college, he’s not. And they no longer can hear him or see him in that episode.

Those are all real fears.

And we have Buffy’s abandonment fears. I feel like for me, that’s where that episode falters a bit, backspace. So we will get there.

That goes into the whole first year of college, Parker Abrams thing. Where Buffy just cannot get over this guy. and I figure I have to wait and talk about that then. There’s just a lot there, but I’m blaming Parker for my not loving that episode. And for the fear for Buffy not quite ring true for me.

Angel Season 2 Arc

Angel (the episode) has one of my favorite Midpoints. And as the Midpoint of the season is so telling. I feel like that had to be deliberate, that the writers and creators must’ve known that Angel was going to be the focus of Season 2.

Because that is such a key spot in the season. Right in the middle of the season we get that reveal of Angel is a vampire. And that vampire-Slayer conflict that will drive Season 2 and also a large part of Season 3.

Who Is Principal Snyder?

Principal Snyder, as I mentione, d such a great red herring and then also a great character. I feel like that episode, The Puppet Show, in particular really does set the tone and foreshadow the ambiguity over Snyder. Throughout the next couple seasons we will wonder is he evil? We start to see that, yes, the authorities in Sunnydale put him in charge specifically because they know all these things are going on and they want someone who can handle it or manage it.

But it is not clear, are those authorities good or evil? What are Snyder’s motives? Like, yes, he wants order. But there’s a point where you think is he being willfully blind to that Buffy truly is fighting the forces of darkness.

Or does he really just not care, is it irrelevant to him? Or is he outright evil?

I’m not certain that’s ever really answered. Maybe the answer is that he cares about order above all things, and nothing else matter to him.

We have a great back and forth with him in Graduation Day with the mayor that I think just encapsulates that that whole issue for Principal Snyder. So I love that right from the start we get that conflict with him.

Buffy’s Choice

Finally, our biggest foreshadowing is Buffy’s choice to fight and probably die versus to let it be a world that is that of the vampires and the Master. Because in The Gift she will make that same type of choice. But she is in such a different place here.

Yes, she doesn’t want to die. She sixteen, she doesn’t want to die. She ultimately realizes she would rather fight and die than live in that world. In Season 5, she is so worn out and exhausted by what she is lost. It has been so hard for her.

And in Prophecy Girl, she becomes resolute and determined. To me feel she has a certain amount of peace. She seems much more peaceful when she says to Willow, we’ll do what we have to. In The Gift when she says that about the world, saying if these are the choices, I don’t know how to live in this world. And it’s a very sad, defeated, weary place that she is when she ultimately makes the choice to sacrifice herself.

We get back that sense of peace and wonder and her feeling like this is the work I was made to do, this is my purpose. This is the right thing as she’s diving in to close up that portal between the world.

She doesn’t know what will happen to her. But she knows it is the right thing.

So that is such a great foreshadowing of what would’ve been the close of the series.

Because after that it shifted to a new network, so that was written as the series finale.

And I feel like this early Prophecy Girl episode really foreshadows that. And gives us that clue that, as a hero, Buffy will more than once lay down her life. So that is pretty amazing because you wouldn’t necessarily think the writer could top what was in Prophecy Girl when it comes to showing that happening. Or maybe top is the wrong word. But could do it again and have it be a different character arc and different issues and yet return to that theme.

Share Your Thoughts

That’s it for this episode.

Thank you so much for listening Buffy and the Art of Story  is a production of Spiny Woman LLC copyright 2020.

If you’d like to connect, you can tweet me @LisaMLilly #BuffyStory. Or email me Lisa at lisalily.com. You can also find my fiction, including mysteries and supernatural thrillers at lisalily.com, and you can find articles on writing, time management, and publishing at WritingAsASecondCareer.com

Buffy and the Art of Story is a production of Spiny Woman LLC. Copyright 2020.