“So, Ampata. You’re a girl.”
“For many years now.”
Buffy has done an episode based on The Invisible Man and Frankenstein. What classic Universal style horror tropes are still left? Well, there’s werewolves (oh, and Oz gets his first appearance here) and… oh yes, mummies.
This episode follows the tropes pretty closely, really- we have a sarcophagus, an inscription and even a museum. The mummy may be Incan rather than Egyptian, but otherwise everything is just as we would expect, except for one nice touch: the genders are reversed. The mummy is a girl this time, while the traditionally feminine role of the semi-brainwashed love interest goes to Xander.
There’s more, though. The mummy is a sixteen year old Inca princess, a human sacrifice who just wants to live a normal life, but can’t because she’s the Chosen One and must make huge sacrifices. Parallel much? The parallels between her and Buffy are very explicit, probably too explicit. But there are differences. On the one hand, Ampata actually kills people so she can stay alive but, on the other, she’s very, very innocent and sympathetic, very different from the savvy valley girl she’s being contrasted with.
This episode is much underrated, I think. Not only is it a nice use of a trope that’s fun to see in Buffy, it’s also a good character episode. Xander, for once, gets to realise that, actually, being a nice guy, he can be attractive to nice girls, in spite of the paralysing lack of confidence that afflicts all teenage boys (“You’re not a praying mantis, are you?”). Speaking as an ex-teenage boy, I’m very much of the opinion that teenage boys who don’t feel this crippling sense of self-doubt when it comes to the opposite (or indeed same) sex should be shot. It’s only fair on the others.
We clearly have another direction looming for Willow’s character, too. Two things happen, significantly, in the same episode: she comes to realise, sort of, that she’s not going to get Dwith Xander, and Oz, making his first appearance, very much notices her. It’s not hard to see where this is headed.
Oz is an interesting character in the context of this American High School thing where everybody is supposed to fit into some sort of pre-defined category- jock, nerd, stoner, etc. Or at least it seems to this foreigner, whose experience of the American High School is drawn entirely from popular culture. Oz doesn’t fit into this: he’s the type who, because he plays guitar in a band and knows his music, is considered cool without being a jock, and is even allowed a certain measure of geekiness while retaining his coolness quota. How does all this work, exactly?
Oh, and another character makes his debut in a low-key cameo: Jonathan. It’s moments like this that you only notice while marathoning the Buffyverse for a second time. And I’m also noticing that all kinds of arc-related character things have kicked off already…
(Oh, and this is my last regular blog post until the New Year, when things will be back to normal. Christmas stuff, you know. There will probably be the odd posrt here and threre- and I'm certainly blogging Christmas Day's episode of Doctor Who not long after it airs- but don't expect anything like a regular schedule until January 2nd.)
(Oh, and this is my last regular blog post until the New Year, when things will be back to normal. Christmas stuff, you know. There will probably be the odd posrt here and threre- and I'm certainly blogging Christmas Day's episode of Doctor Who not long after it airs- but don't expect anything like a regular schedule until January 2nd.)
No comments:
Post a Comment