Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch: Prophecy Girl (Season 1 Episode 12)

Buffy is a sixteen-year-old girl.

That’s the biggest takeaway from this first season finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It’s easy to forget when things are fun and exciting, when Buffy is fighting vampires and other weird demons. But the fact is always there. Buffy is still a young teenage girl — one who has heart, passion, hopes and dreams.

It’s the spring dance, a big moment for any teenage girl on television. That tried and true TV Trope that always ends in the girl having a big moment with the cute guy during a lovely cover of a popular love song.

Buffy’s mind should be on the perfect white dress that her mom thoughtfully bought for her. It should be on what color her manicure will be. It should be on how she will repair her friendship with Xander now that she’s officially rejected him on every romantic level.

But Buffy’s life is not a TV Trope. She’s not in the same class with the other WB heroines of her time.

This odd, apocalyptic lifestyle is real life for Buffy and regardless of her supernatural abilities, and her duties as a slayer, she’s still just a sixteen year old girl when you boil it all down.

Buffy: Does it say how he’ll kill me? Do you think it’ll hurt?

Giles discovers that The Master is going to rise soon and that the Hellmouth will open up for his arrival. That’s not the only information that the Watcher uncovers from his books; in fulfillment of the prophecy that we heard way back in “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” Buffy will face The Master. And she will die.

Giles, now very attached to Buffy, is beside himself with grief and fear of losing Buffy to her duty. This is the manifestation of the fear we learned about in, “Nightmares.” Giles can’t bear to think that there’s a chance he won’t be able to properly prepare his slayer.

No, that’s not it at all.

Giles can’t bear to think that there’s a chance he’ll lose Buffy. He’s so worried, in fact, that he contacts the only person who he think can help find another way around the prophecy…Angel. The only other man alive who loves Buffy as much as he, himself, does.

When Buffy overhears the chatter of her death, every deep rooted fear that she’s had about being a slayer comes to the forefront. We see her break down in a way that we’ve not seen yet, throwing books and screaming at her Watcher, and it’s in this moment that we see why Sarah Michelle Gellar was cast as Buffy.

It takes a good actress to take a silly and strange concept show and make it a hit. It takes an incredible and talented actress to create a character so rich and layered, that when she cries over that silly and strange concept, she makes it an incredibly poignant moment of television.

Buffy: Giles, I’m sixteen years old. I don’t wanna die.

Sarah Michelle Gellar already had a Daytime Emmy under her belt for her work on All My Children at this point, so it’s no surprise that she knocked this scene out of the park and took this show to a brand new level, emotionally.

Buffy wants to quit. By all counts, she should be able to walk away from her duties and focus on being a teen. But as Angel reminds her, and as the deaths of her fellow students remind her, this is her destiny. She, alone, is the chosen one.

She is the slayer.

So she puts on her beautiful dress, she does her hair, suits up in her leather jacket, and goes off to dance with death rather than dance at her Spring Fling.

The Anointed One is there to meet her, because again, that’s the prophecy. He will  see the slayer and she will not know him. And he will lead her to the Master.

And when Buffy meets the Master, there’s nothing that she can do. And she does, indeed, die at his hand, drowning.

Drowning seems like such an odd way for Buffy to die, but there it is.

That’s when the unlikely hero swoops in, Xander, who teams up with Angel to be Buffy’s backup against the Master. And Xander saves Buffy’s life, not with magic or some kind of crazy supernatural anything…he does good old fashioned CPR to resurrect the slayer.

It’s such a great and fitting heroic moment for Xander, who starts the episode being rejected by Buffy, and who all season has not been very useful as far as muscle goes. Giles and Willow have books and research skills. Angel has muscle and experience against the vampires. What does Xander have besides bad fashion and witty comebacks?

He has heart.

Xander’s heroic act (hey, going down there to begin with being just a mere mortal is a big deal,) is just the beginning of Xander showing his usefulness and what he brings to the Scooby Gang.

Will this change things with Buffy, suddenly making him a more intriguing romantic option? Probably not. I mean, come on, you’ve all SEEN Angel. But this certainly should change things in their friendship moving forward.

The Master does get his chance to walk the earth, but Buffy and the Gang put an end to their first Big Bad together, staking him in the heart with a giant wooden stake and pushing him through a glass ceiling.

The Master: You’re dead.
Buffy: I may be dead, but I’m still pretty.

The Master is old, so naturally, he doesn’t dust like other vampires, leaving behind his bones. Which feels ominous, almost as though he’s not really dead…yet.

Buffy’s death will certainly change her perspective on being the slayer. How could it not? But with her first major foe defeated, she has confidence that she may have been lacking until this point.

And she knows now that while she is the Chosen One, she has chosen for herself an amazing group of allies who will help her defeat anything she comes up against.

The first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is, at its core, an introduction. We see a little of everything that the series has to offer. A lovely heroine, her amazing sidekicks, her handsome love interest, and the bigger picture of what her obstacles will be.

What will the second season have in store for Buffy and the Scoobies? We’ll just have to wait and see.

 

Pop Into Pop Culture:

• The Master asking, “Where are your jibes now?” is a scene in Hamlet.
• The obvious Night of the Living Dead reference as the vamps descend on the library.
• You can see a Porky Pig cartoon in the background (Tttthat’s all folks!)
• Xander refers to a specific episode of Star Trek: TNG, “The Best of Both Worlds.”

Fashion Fau-Pauxs:

• Willow’s green sneakers.
• Willow’s zig-zag pants.
• Buffy’s blue skirt.
• Giles’ rumpled and wrinkled outfit.

Cordeliaisms:

• “See how YOU like it!” (as she bites a vampire’s hand)
• “Obviously, Kevin has underestimated the power of my icy stare.”

Stay tuned for the next installment of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Re-Watch as the staff at Tell-Tale TV discusses Season 1!