Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Myth, Metaphor & Morality

by Field, Mark

  “I early on, wanted to do a show where people didn’t talk. As the show went on, I became more and more obsessed with it because I felt as a director I was degenerating. I was turning into a tv hack, over, over, two shots. Shot of him, shot of her, they’re talking to each other, shot of them both, and back….and I was beginning to fall into a shorthand. One thing that I don’t love about tv is that a lot of it is what I refer to as radio with faces. If you want to shoot a scene quickly, you put someone up against a wall, have them say their lines, and boom, it’s done. From the start, one of the important things about Buffy is that I wanted the show to work visually, so much so that a Fox executive told me that I was putting too much visual information on every page, that it was not going to be possible to shoot it. …

  By the fourth year, I had kind of fallen into the people are yakking without really thinking about it, and I wanted to curtail that in myself. And so, on a practical level, the idea of doing a show where everybody lost their voice presented itself as a great big challenge, because I knew that I would literally have to tell the story only visually. That would mean I could not fall into tricks.”

  What makes the episode brilliant is that Joss found a way to tie this need for change to the actual plots and themes of the show. Hush is an extended metaphor about communication. As I see them, The Gentlemen represent the fairy tales we all tell ourselves and others. At the end of Buffy’s dream in the teaser, Riley morphs into one of the Gentlemen. That’s telling her that the Riley she sees in the dream is a fairy tale. The destruction of The Gentlemen represents the destruction of the tales they’d been telling each other. And they’re the creepiest villains in the entire series.

  Prof. Walsh sets up the problem of communication in the teaser: “"So this is what it is… talking about communication, talking about language... not the same thing…. It's about the thoughts and experiences that we don't have a word for.” We then see an example of non-verbal communication when Buffy and Riley kiss. The fact that part of what we see takes place entirely in Buffy’s imagination reinforces the point.

  Buffy and Riley haven’t been and aren’t communicating, as we see at the end of the teaser from the babblefest and missed kissage. More significantly, they’re both hiding an important feature of their respective identities, namely the fact that they are Clark Kenting their way through life. This causes both of them to lie, an obvious form of non-communication.

  It may seem peculiar to raise a theme about communication in an episode which has so little dialogue, but Joss explains it this way: “I had a general notion that what it was about was the idea that when people stop talking they start communicating. That language can interfere with communication, because language limits. As soon as you say something you’ve eliminated every other possibility of what you might be talking about. We also use language to separate ourselves from other people, we also use language as white noise, we also misuse it horribly. All of those things appear on the show.”

  Here’s one of the examples he gives (there are a great many more scattered throughout the episode):

  “(Spike on the couch, Xander and Anya arguing in Giles’ apartment)

  For example, in this scene, I hope we learn that Xander can’t express himself. He can’t tell Anya how he feels because he’s not that kind of guy, and she of course says something inappropriate because her understanding of language is very rudimentary and straightforward and like it’s her second language, because it is! She’s ex-demon. Also the fact that everyone keeps talking and Giles desperately wants them to shut up, he can’t take all the noise. Later on in the Wicca scene, the misuse of the word empowering. People just using language to block themselves from expressing themselves.”

  Buffy and Riley end up learning a lot about each other in this episode, much more than they’ve learned in their previous interactions. They kiss for the first time, demonstrating that they care about each other (somewhat less aggressively than Xander and Anya). They each learn that the other has a secret identity, not from saying it but from seeing it. Ironically, they sit awkwardly silent at the end because their failure to talk has led them to a situation in which explaining it all – their relationship, their identities, how their identity might affect their relationship – is awkward now that words have become necessary again.

  Other characters learn about themselves and about each other during the episode as well. Anya learns that Xander really does care about her; maybe Xander learned that about himself too (see Joss’s comment above). Olivia learned some possibly uncomfortable truths about Giles. And Willow learned something about being a real witch. I’ll have much more to say about Willow in the future, and how her arc in S4 fits in with the seasonal theme of identity, but I’ll leave it there for now so as not to spoil anyone (unlikely on this point, I suspect, but an excess of caution can’t hurt).

  Trivia notes: (1) Andy Hallet, who later played Lorne on AtS, was in the classroom audience for the teaser. (2) “Fortune favors the brave” is a line from the Aeneid. (3) “Blessed be” is a greeting or farewell for Wiccas. That’s why Willow described the wicca group as a bunch of “wanna-blessed-bes”. (4) Spike’s gesture to Xander – holding up two fingers, palm facing Spike – is the British equivalent of the American middle finger. (5) The prayer group meeting had sign reading “Revelations 15:1”, which reads (King James Version): “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” (6) The music Giles played during his “lecture” was the “Danse Macabre” by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens. (7) The “hips” joke was SMG’s idea. (8) The little club Riley drew out of his boot is a telescoping baton made by ASP, Inc. (9) I particularly liked Myles McNutt’s review of this episode, so I’m reproducing part of it here:

  “I do certainly wish that I could go back in time and experience this with everyone else at the turn of the century. More than any other episode of Buffy so far, I wish that I could have been there to write a review and to analyze the myriad of ways in which this is easily the most well-executed hour of television Buffy has produced to this point. While other episodes have been more emotionally resonant or explosive, no other episode has felt this expertly and ingeniously crafted. Compelling both as a standalone piece of entertainment and as an advancement of the season’s story arcs, “Hush” didn’t leave me speechless so much as it made me wish that I could go back to the turn of the century and be part of the initial response to what is rightfully heralded as one of the series’ finest moments….

  There’s a moment after the silence ends where Giles and Olivia discuss how, for the latter, witchcraft has finally become real, Giles’ stories becoming more than just fairy tales. This isn’t news for the viewers, who have seen numerous things they presumed to be unreal come to life within the series, but this is the most potent example of the series’ reality being subsumed by such an insurrection. Rather than interrupting storylines, disrupting the logical progression of things, “Hush” actually brings each character’s ongoing lives into the Gentlemen’s terrifying plot, using it add complexity to the season’s storylines that wasn’t there before. I don’t yet know how that turns out (I stopped after “Hush” to write this review without moving onto “Doomed”), but that’s part of the fun of the way this episode was initially scheduled: coming right before the Christmas break, I imagine “Hush” would have had plenty of time to settle in viewers’ minds by the time the show returned in January. And the episode isn’t just sitting there because of the stunning depiction of the Gentlemen or the novelty of a silent episode: it sits there because of the meaning it created for the characters, and the ways in which the episode takes the series’ existing structures and executes them to a level that it hadn’t achieved previously.”

  http://cultural-learnings.com/2010/07/01/cultural-catchup-project-hush-buffy-the-vampire-slayer/

  Proving that good analysis of BtVS can appear in seemingly unlikely places, here’s an e
xcellent point I’d never seen before which appeared on a political blog:

  “As noted above, the only time Whedon’s not tracking [camera shots] is when he’s tightly framing faces. That technique makes sense in an episode in which all the information about the characters’ respective mental states is going to be non-verbal. In his excellent post on non-verbal facial cues in The Social Network, David Bordwell argues that the “intensified continuity” in modern cinema requires actors to “be maestros of their facial muscles and eye movements,” and though “Hush” is an episode of a television show and not a film, the same applies here.

  Because even shows like Buffy prefer some sort of realistic acting, this almost qualifies as over-doing it: this is intensified continuity intensified, but it remains naturalistic in the hushed context of the episode. The only way the characters can communicate is to over-act. Looking concerned no longer communicates being worried unless, as per the last frame above, that concern is exaggerated. (I could demonstrate that this dynamic is operative when Xander and Spike are conversing or when Riley’s trying to enter the Initiative, but in the interest of space and bandwidth, just take my word for it.) In sum, Whedon is setting the audience up by having it pay closer attention to facial expressions than they otherwise would. Why would he do that? Meet the episode’s antagonist:

  They would be the Gentlemen, and creepy as they would be otherwise, their creepiness is heightened by the fact that in an episode that keys the audience to pay attention to the plasticity of faces, theirs don’t move.”

  http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2011/02/check-out-that-face-being-lecture-notes-on-the-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-episode-hush#more-19519

  Doomed

  Doomed may seem like an odd episode to feature an apocalypse. It’s not a season finale, which we might expect. It isn’t played as farce like The Zeppo. What makes the situation apocalyptic is metaphorical: Buffy’s fear of starting a new relationship, particularly one that might be similar to her relationship with Angel. She was happy to date Riley when she thought he was a “corn-fed Iowa boy”. The idea that she’s about to hook up with another professional demon hunter is deeply worrying to her for two reasons: (1) It may say something about the men she’s attracted to; and (2) Riley’s been concealing some pretty important facts.

  Riley was quick to point out that she hasn’t been fully forthcoming either, but what happened next was crucial. Buffy immediately told him who she was, namely, “Slayer, The”. Riley, in contrast, wouldn’t tell her about himself, leaving her to provide him with an all-too-accurate description. The relationship can’t succeed if she’s disclosing her identity and he’s not.

  That was all in the teaser. Later Riley tried to argue her out of her decision on the ground that someone may have “done you wrong” in the past but that he won’t. The flaw in this argument is that she has no reason to trust his promise since she found out he’s been hiding such important facts from her and still won’t tell her the whole truth.

  From Buffy’s perspective, this whole situation has all too many similarities to her relationship with Angel. Angel first appeared to her as a mystery guy who gave her helpful information. He neglected to mention the insignificant fact that, oh yeah, he’s a vampire. She fell for him, yes, but it wasn’t until she felt she could trust him that she committed. “I love you. I just don’t know if I can trust you.” (Lie to Me.)

  These similarities, I think, explain why Buffy saw the potential for “pain, death, apocalypse”. There’s a risk that she’s about to repeat the mistakes she made in high school. There are multiple references to “being back in high school” by Willow, Buffy and Spike throughout the episode. Buffy felt as if she was doomed to repeat high school; that’s the metaphor. Her trip back to the school allows her to face the demons which her high school experience generated and which are metaphorically blocking her from entering into a new relationship.

  When Doomed first aired, the scene in which Buffy jumped into the Hellmouth after the Vahrall demon really bothered me – she obviously violated the laws of physics. Doomed is one of the episodes I had in mind in my discussion of “realism” in the Introduction. The key to the scene is not the physics, it’s the emotional truth that Riley was willing to stay with her and pull her out of the depths of despair into which she had plunged. Riley earned her trust by helping bring her back from the Hellmouth, just as Angel earned it by his actions in The Dark Age.

  Buffy really does like Riley, so we don’t see much about Xander, her metaphorical heart in Doomed. Her reluctance to enter a relationship with Riley is instead reflected in Willow, her metaphorical spirit. Willow’s uncertainty at the party demonstrates that she still lacks confidence in who she is. She was thrown by Percy’s question about Oz and got upset that Percy called her a nerd and a geek. Her recent sense of herself is very tied up with dating Oz – “hello, dating a guitarist” – but his departure has left her so unsure about herself that Percy’s comments made her feel “like I was back in high school”.

  In this context, Spike’s description of Xander and Willow as losers who simply get in Buffy’s way both plays into the metaphorical insecurities of Buffy and Willow and will have important repercussions later on:

  Spike: “*Buffy* fights the forces of evil. You’re her groupies. She’d do just as well without you – better I’d wager, since she wouldn’t have to go about saving your hides all the time.”

  Xander: “That is so not true! We’re part of the team. She needs us.”

  Spike: “Or you’re just the same tenth grade losers you’ve always been, and she’s too much of a softy to cut you loose.”

  I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about Riley. To say he wasn’t popular with fans is an understatement. Most saw him as boring, very few, if any, thought Marc Blucas had any chemistry with SMG, and many disliked the idea of Buffy moving on from Angel. I don’t dislike Riley, but I’m not a particular fan of his character. This episode pretty much sums up why: at the end, when Riley talked about blowing his cover, he said it’s “the end of the world”. That one phrase demonstrates just how distant his life experience is from Buffy’s, who really does face the plural of apocalypse and who has to account for that in her life.

  We can read Riley’s enthusiasm in the face of his ignorance about demons as all too typical of graduate students (maybe of college grads generally). They have an unjustified self-confidence and excitement about confronting the challenges of the world, but they don’t really know what that world is like – compare Riley’s glee about the earthquake with Buffy’s reaction. In the metaphor of the show, Buffy has grown up much more than Riley because she’s faced those problems. What we’re told of his home life in Iowa plays off a stereotype of someone who’s been sheltered. The only way he could describe Buffy as “self-involved” – a line that still grates on me – is that he knows nothing of the challenges she faces.

  Riley also evinced a “boys with toys” attitude consistent with his over-enthusiasm. Buffy hung a lantern on this with her reference to playing Donkey Kong when Riley showed up with his pheromone reader. This also ties back in to Doug Petrie’s comment that one theme of the season was the contrast between science and magic. The twin, intercut scenes of the Initiative and of Buffy as they prepare to find the demons makes this point pretty obvious:

  “Cut to the gang researching at Giles.

  Giles: “A Vahrall demon.”

  Willow looking over at his book: “Eew!”

  Xander: “I second that revulsion.”

  Giles: “Yes. ‘Slick like gold and girt in moonlight, father of portents and brother to blight’.”

  Buffy reading over his shoulder: “Limbs with talons, eyes like knives, bane to the blameless, thief of lives.”

  Cut to Riley debriefing his patrol team: “Three meters [10 feet] tall, approximately 100 –120 kilograms [220-264 pounds], based on my visual analysis.”

  Graham: “Special hazards?”

  Riley: “Unknown. Probably no
thing we haven’t handled before. There is no pattern we can discern yet, so we got to assume that it is on a basic kill-crush-destroy.”

  Cut to Buffy: “This thing isn’t digging up the bones of a child for fun.”

  Xander: “Well, a demon’s got some pretty hilarious ideas about fun.”

  Willow: “Bones of a child though. I saw that! (Pulls a book over to her and flips pages) An ancient ritual – uses the blood of a man, the bones of a child and – something called the Word of Valios? I-It’s all part of the sacrifice – the sacrifice of three.”

  Buffy: “Let me guess – ends the world.”

  Willow: “Well, yeah, - I-it’s not big with the details, though. It doesn’t say how the world ends or what the ritual entails exactly.”

  Xander: “The sacrifice of three... – Three people are going to die?”

  Buffy: “No, they won’t. Because claw boy is not getting all of his ingredients. We have to find that third one, the Word of Valios, keep him from getting it.”

  Willow: “If he doesn’t already have it. I mean, who knows where he’s been?”

  Cut to Riley: “Here is one for the good guys: this thing has a pheromone signature a mile wide. Agent Gates has been working with the detection system the lab’s developing.”

  Forrest gets up: “Can’t tell where it’s going, but I’ve got a bead on where it’s been. (Stands next to Riley) Residual traces showing up in populated areas. The thing’s not shy.”

  Riley: “We’re going out in civies, day clothes only guys. Weapons stowed in packs, keep ‘em out of sight til nightfall. Remember this isn’t a capture, it’s a kill.”

  Forrest as the meeting breaks up: “Get your quadrant assignment from me. We’ll blanket the town.”

  Cut to Buffy: “I’ll check the magic shop. See if they’ve heard of a book called the Word of Valios. (Puts on her coat) Willow, Xander, how about the book archives at the museum?”