Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 12: Prophecy Girl
Written and Directed by Joss WhedonThe first season finally comes to and end. It's had some ups and downs, but at least it ends on a high note. Indeed, it's actually the strongest episode of the season, and its strengths lie in the ways in which it hints at the developments, both in terms of character relationships and in the impending darkness of tone, that would come to characterise the show in its second season. Giles and Buffy get to express some genuine human emotions, which, until this episode, hadn't really happened, at least not to any great extent. I also like Willow's turning down Xander when he asks her to go to the dance with her because she doesn't want to be his second choice - it's these little character moments that make the show so rewarding.
My one real complaint about this otherwise solid episode is the incredibly cheesy moment in which they set the show's theme music to video-edited footage of the recently resurrected Buffy walking towards the school. Yeesh.
Oh, and this time round I noticed what sounds suspiciously like foreshadowing of Willow's impending conversion to the wonderful world of homosexuality. Perhaps it only appears that way with the benefit of hindsight, but if it was indeed intentional, then it suggests that that particular development was planned more than three years in advance.
8/10
Next time: getting right into Season 2 with When She Was Bad, an episode that has seemed to divide fans, but which I think is a pretty good opener.
4 Comments:
What foreshadowing? I didn't see any. Or at least can't remember if I did.
By Baron Scarpia, at 19:24
I don't remember the specific line, but it's when Buffy and Xander are talking about the dance, and Xander says something along the lines of "Willow's not looking to date you... or if she is she's playing it pretty close to her chest." Like I said, though, there's a good chance that it's nothing and merely looks like foreshadowing with the benefit of hindsight, as I suspect is true in a number of the instances where viewers claim that the show sets up plots years in advance - for another example, look at the number of times throughout the series that references are made to Xander's eye(s) and sight, and then watch what happens to him towards the end of Season 7.
I do know, however, that the writers hadn't decided specifically whether to make Willow or Xander gay until pretty close to the last minute, so Season 3 and the first part of Season 4 contain a whole bunch of signifiers that very much left the door open for them. (And doesn't Season 2 have Larry coming out to Xander, with the scene played as Larry recognising Xander as a 'kindred spirit'?)
By Whiggles, at 19:52
They played around with Xander being gay? That would have been interesting.
By Baron Scarpia, at 21:48
Yeah, and it could have worked. It might at any rate have given him a bit more of a storyline than he ended up with. I think Seth Green leaving without notice more or less pushed them in the direction of Willow, though.
By Whiggles, at 22:38
Post a Comment
<< Home