Buffy the Vampire Slayer, You Slay Me

January 6, 2011

Doug and I are re-watching one of our favorite series of all time, Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. This time, we're introducing the kids to the show. (It's okay, they're old enough for it!) We're in Season 2 now, and we've just watched the one where Angel loses his soul. If you're familiar with the series, you know what an emotional episode it is. If you're unfamiliar with the series, suffice it to say that this is a pivotal episode. Just like the first time I saw it, it profoundly affected me. I'm actually a little embarrassed at how much, in fact. It really affected my mood. Silly, I know, for a television show to have such an impact. It's fiction, after all. And yet, it's not. Sure, it's a show about vampires, but really it's a show about relationships and friendships. When I started thinking about it, I realized why that episode in particular is such a powerful one. In the end, it's just about a boy who, after some trigger unbeknownst to the girl, 'turns,' or changes. Without knowing why, he becomes someone different, unrecognizable. Just like that, with no real explanation, the relationship and trust is betrayed, leaving the girl with a shifting equilibrium, gasping to catch her breath and understand the incomprehensible.

To be honest, that's happened to me twice in my life, and believe it or not, that show really takes me right back to those completely devastating scenes in my own life where my world was spun dizzily out of my control, leaving me helpless in its wake and completely at a loss to explain why the change took place. I guess that's what makes it such a good show--its ability to transport the viewer, the immediacy of the emotions, and way it transcends the obvious storyline and becomes, ultimately, a show about the emotional journeys of real life--despite the vampires. A story about how we all love and hate and hurt and lose and trust and care: that's a story we can all relate to, wherever we are in our lives.