Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush

"Well, it could definitely be one of your prophetic dreams. Or it could just be the eternal mystery that is your brain."

Yes, I know. My habit of opening my reviews with a quote is not exactly appropriate here. But it's my style, dammit. I usually watch with subtitles, but for once I felt a bit silly doing so. At least they were useful for the first thirteen minutes.

Obviously, this is a superlative piece of television, and possibly the best Buffy ever. And yes, it is indeed both written and directed by Joss Whedon himself. It's also a great episode to talk about. Problem is, it already has been much written and talked about. I may be a Buffy fan, but I don’t really think of myself as part of its fandom, mainly because Doctor Who fandom is a big part of my social life these days and I'm very much aware of what actual fandom involves. Still, even a non-fandom fan like me is aware of this episode's inspiration by Marshall McLuhan and its general theme that people start communicating when they stop talking. In fact, it's all there in the episode's first line from Maggie Walsh, and Buffy pretty much underlines this by complaining about everything being "all talk".

Just to zoom through the main examples…

The relationship between Buffy and Riley has now been simmering for so long that it absolutely has to boil over about now. But talk is getting in the way; both of them are hiding a big secret, and the effort of keeping these secrets is stopping them from connecting. Only when they lose the power of speech do they finally kiss, and they discover each others' secrets by means of show, not tell. Once speech finally returns to them, so does the awkwardness.

Xander and Anya are having a bit of a tiff because Xander can't bring himself to admit his feelings for Anya. But, once speech is no longer an, option, a misunderstanding involving Spike and a mug of blood causes him to demonstrate how much he cares. Anya is instantly won over, and shows just how randy she's feeling by making that gesture, which is the best thing ever.

Giles' long distance with Olivia, though (we've met her only once before), may be going in the other direction. Giles' tales of scary things were fine, but the actual experience of Giles' lifestyle has shocked her.

Finally, there's Willow's frustrating experiences at the Wicca group, who are all talk and no broomsticks, except for Tara (I'd forgotten she first turned up so early), the only other true witch, who is nervous, diffident, and gently bullied into silence by the others. Only when silence descends can she and Willow communicate by their shared magical power, moving a massive drinks machine in a nice little metaphor moment. I think the gay, sexual element to their relationship is still subtext at this stage, but it isn't all that sub.

Every character has a big moment happen to them this pivotal episode. The use of the lack of speech to move things forward in such a big way seems pointed.

So, that's they stuff you can read elsewhere. Also interesting, though, are the echoes of silent cinema. The Gentlemen look a bit like Nosferatu, and their movements are very expressive. Interestingly, Nosferatu was a vampire (well, Dracula himself, renamed for legal reasons, and removing peoples' hearts is quite an uber-vampiric thing to do. There's a lot of visual humour, redolent of silent comedies. Giles' slides in the lecture theatre also hint at intertitles, perhaps. Also, I love his drawing.

We're about halfway through the season now. It isn't as good as Season Three (few things in life are) but it's shaping up to be very impressive.