Buffy Rewatch Week 19

3.19 Choices
3.20 The Prom

On the wall above my desk, I have taped three sheets of paper: it’s the complete schedule of this year’s Buffy Rewatch, complete with the names of the contributors on each week (I’ve updated them a couple of times as new people are coming on board for later episodes). I’m happy to say that as of this week, I’m onto page 2.

I don’t have much to say this week, despite “The Prom” being in my top 10 favourite Buffy episodes. Partly because my husband’s been away on a trip for the past week and a half and I’ve been swamped with work and kids and doing stuff on my own (all you single moms out there will always be my heroes), and partly because this week’s guest host has covered just about everything there is to cover on these two episodes (yay!)

I just wanted to mention something coming up in a couple of weeks, though… Angel. Tune in to this blog later this week for a post on the spinoff and how it will be incorporated into the Rewatch. I thought both of these episodes were definitely precursors to the other show, both with creating the pathway that Angel will take to walk away, and also creating other situations that will lead two other characters to follow him to his world in L.A. I’m sure most of you know who, but for those remaining very spoiler-free and who intend to watch Angel, I’ll just say the seeds for that series are in these ones. I love both of these episodes for the way they lead from Earshot (dammit, I should have moved Earshot to be the opening of this week rather than part of last week), which establishes that high school can be horrific, and take it to a new level. These kids are about to graduate into a world that can be hostile and vicious… and that has nothing to do with the vampires lurking about. The choices they’re about to make will inform everything they do. I can’t wait until next week’s eps.

So until then, please allow me to introduce Kristen Romanelli! I met her for the first time at Slayage 4 last June, where she was with her boyfriend David Kociemba, whom I’d met at the previous Slayage. And now I’d like you all to join me in a chorus of “Aww….” when I say that she went to Slayage 4 as his girlfriend, and left as his fiancée. Kristen has no academic affiliation, but she's a first generation Buffy viewer who works as an interactive producer in Boston. She's can be found (occasionally) blogging on the Watcher Junior blog and (frequently) participating in Monday night #whedony chats on Twitter as @watcherjunior. It took every fiber of her being to not write 1,500 words on Alexis Denisof's eyes.



I have no academic street cred, but I did watch Buffy when it started broadcasting in my sophomore year of high school. I was sixteen, the characters were sixteen, and Sarah Michelle Gellar was 20. I identified with the Scooby Gang, even though I fought against the forces of acne on a weekly basis while they fought against the forces of evil on a weekly basis. Throughout the first three seasons, I felt like I was growing with them in high school. So when the Scoobies were facing the reality of their futures in Choices and The Prom, I was similarly in a state of, “Oh, crap. Now what?” These two episodes aired on May 4 and May 11, 1999; I could taste the end of senior year and the beginning of... well, whatever. I wouldn’t have to worry about that yet, right? Despite the presence of a Hellmouth and the supernatural, the emotions and fears shown in the teenage characters were very real to me and they appropriately reflected what I saw in myself and my friends at this time in our lives.

I view Choices and The Prom as companion episodes because they both explore the question of “What next?” Choices begins by discussing college and post-high school life and The Prom continues this examination using this “end of high school rite of passage thingy” as its framework. Prom is important. If I’ve learned anything from 80s teen flicks, it’s that you must have the perfect dress and the perfect date. Your prom will be in your gym, your punch will be spiked, someone will try to ruin the whole night for everybody, and there’s a prom king and queen. (None of these things were true of my senior prom… aside from the perfect dress and perfect date (my best friend).) In Sunnydale, the prom symbolizes a respite from the inevitability of graduation. Of course, here graduation is not only the end of high school and the beginning of an uncertain future, but possibly the end. They need this dance. But before we get there…

In Choices, the Scoobies begin to get a glimpse of their potential future as college acceptance letters start tumbling into their mailboxes. Willow, as expected by both characters and viewers, has been accepted everywhere that’s anywhere. Xander, also as expected, is playing it cool (Kerouac cool) about the possibility of being left behind both academically and geographically by his closest friends. The real interesting bits come with Buffy and Cordelia. We learned in Lover’s Walk that both girls are very sharp and scored quite high on the SATs (both certainly higher than I scored!), but neither had shown much serious interest in academic pursuits. Nonetheless, Buffy has been accepted to Northwestern. Northwestern! It makes me wonder what other schools (other than UC Sunnydale) she applied to (and for what programs). What does a Slayer’s application essay look like? Buffy is now facing a decision to leave behind her slayage for whatever studies must have interested her at Northwestern.

We know that Cordelia is smart and we know that she loves to rub her success in the face of “losers” like Xander. Especially Xander.

Xander: Any clue on what college you might be attending so we can start calculating minimum safe distance?
Cordelia: None of your business. Certainly nowhere near you losers!
Buffy: Okay, you guys, don’t forget to breathe between insults.
Cordelia: I’m sorry Buffy. This conversation is reserved for people who actually have a future.

So while this exchange has the typical Cordy “bite,” it’s missing her sweet, sweet gloating. Someone with score enough to be declared a “brain” should have lots of thick envelopes to flaunt. Something’s wrong, but we’re not quite sure what. The next day, Xander observes Cordy through the window of “April Fools” (which is, we learn, a perfectly named shop). She’s admiring a grey, shiny dress. Impeccable taste! Xander crosses into her territory and to get in a dig. Cordelia, however is prepared with her thick envelopes of guaranteed future:

Cordelia: And once again, the gold medal in the Being Wrong event goes to Xander "I’m as stupid as I look" Harris. Read ‘em and weep, creep. USC, Colorado State, Duke, and Columbia.
Xander: Wow! These are great colleges. I’m guessing they must have seen a different side of your father’s money.
Cordelia: Go away.

Since when does Queen C retaliate with “Go away”? Especially on her retail therapy turf. To Xander. Yeah, something is definitely up. At the end of Choices, we return to Cordelia in “April Fools” and she’s standing in front of a mirror, admiring the same grey dress we saw earlier. Now, the Cordy we know and love would have slapped down some plastic and bought that dress when we first saw her with it. We learn that Cordy isn’t shopping — she’s a salesgirl. She’s a salesgirl? Our Cordy has gone from retail therapy to retail hell!

It isn’t until right before prom that anyone learns the truth. Xander walks by April Fools again and sees Cordelia gazing at the beautiful grey dress again. He can’t resist going into the store to zing her, but a salesgirl spills the beans about Cordy being an employee, not a shopper. Without anything else to hide behind, Cordy breaks down and confesses to Xander that she’s no longer Sunnydale’s resident rich bitch because her daddy made a “little mistake” on his taxes (for the last twelve years). “Yeah, neato. Now you can run along and tell all of your friends how Cordy finally got hers. How she has to work part time just to get a lousy prom dress on layaway. And how she has to wear a name tag. Oh, I’m a name tag person. Don’t leave that out. The story just wouldn’t have the same punch.” Queen C has fallen and she’s bare in front of Xander, the person that she’s tried to alienate the most.

Her fall into humble doesn’t go unrewarded, however. In her very own Cinderella story, Cordelia discovers, mere hours before prom, that someone has paid the balance of her dress. So when she arrives, she arrives, and she is every inch Queen C. Xander dipped into his “road trip fund” for Cordelia. Although she takes the arm of the “way 007” yet hopelessly dorky Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, she thanks Xander, sincerely, and they silently reconcile. He’s saved her image and he keeps the secret that the future Cordelia, and everyone else, thought she had, is no longer a possibility.

Early in Choices, Buffy ponders the future of her relationship while patrolling with Angel:

Buffy: You never take me any place new.
Angel: What about that fire demon nest in the cave by the beach? I felt that was a nice change of pace.
Buffy: So this is our future? This is how we’re going to spend our nights when I’m fifty and you’re ... the same age you are now.
Angel: Let’s just get you to fifty.
Buffy: Liking that plan.

The ensuing fight quickly distracts both Buffy and Angel from this very real matter that they will have to face at some point. But the couple that slays together stays together, right?

But it seems like everyone around them knows that this is a doomed romance. Even Mayor Wilkins tosses in his observation during one of their “clandestine meetings by dark of night”: “I mean, come on. What kind of a life can you offer her? I don’t see a lot of Sunday picnics in the offing. I see skulking in the shadows, hiding from the sun. She’s a blossoming young girl and you want to keep her from the life she should have until it has passed her by. My God! I think that’s a little selfish. Is that what you came back from Hell for? Is that your greater purpose?”

Damnit, big, stupid, evil guy! And the look on Angel’s face tells us everything. He knows, just as we know, that Wilkins is right. In The Prom Joyce also makes her concerns known by visiting Angel at the mansion. Before Angel answers the door, we see him pick up a notebook with “Buffy + Angel 4 ever!” written in a very girlish hand on its cover (“Sometimes even I forget that she’s still just a girl.”). Oh, dear. I totally had notebook covers (and margins) like that. Joyce tells Angel that he knows what he has end his relationship with Buffy. “…When it comes to you, Angel, she’s just like any other young woman in love. You’re all she can see of tomorrow. But I think we both know that there are some hard choices ahead. If she can’t make them, you’re gonna have to. I know you care about her. I just hope you care enough.”

Joyce, the mother figure of “the good guys,” has perfectly mirrored the words of Mayor Wilkins, the father figure of “the bad guys.” And once again, Angel knows that it’s the truth. He’s pushed over the edge by a nightmare of marrying Buffy (who is wearing an amazing gown), but then witnessing her immolated before his eyes. His love destroys her; he must end it.

Angel takes Mayor Wilkins’ and Joyce’s words to heart, and his breakup with Buffy falls firmly into the “you deserve better” genre. “You deserve more. You deserve something outside of demons and darkness. You should be with someone who can take you into the light. Someone who can make love to you.”

After pleading and fighting, all Buffy has left is, “Is this really happening?”

Her sorrow spills over into her scene with Willow where she sobs, “I can’t breathe, Will. I feel like I can’t breathe.”

The loss of one’s first love feels like this. It may look melodramatic and over the top, viewing it again with thirty year old eyes, but when I was eighteen, this was exactly what being blindsided with a breakup before prom felt like.

Buffy remains in her post-breakup haze until her friends start talking about maybe canceling prom after watching video surveillance footage of Tucker Wells (spoiler: Andrew’s Brother) and his formalwear-hungry hellhounds. Buffy snaps out it and suddenly has a mission. A non-Ascension mission! Buffy must save prom. “You guys are going to have a prom. The kind of prom that everyone should have. I’m going to give you all a nice, fun, normal evening if I have to kill every single person on the face of the earth to do it.” (Spoiler: This reminds me of Buffy’s Season 4 manic need for a perfect, normal Thanksgiving, which itself reminds me of Joyce’s desire for a perfect Christmas (complete with roaring fire during a heatwave) in Amends.)

Buffy takes charge and sends everyone else, even Giles, off to the dance; hunting evil is her coping mechanism. Even ice cream is secondary — “The great thing about being a Slayer? Kicking ass is comfort food.”

It turns out that Tucker is having a little inner turmoil of his own. He asked a girl out to prom and she deadpanned, “No,” in response. Clearly, everyone deserves to suffer. So he does what every disappointed lad would do: He summons a few hellhounds and brainwashes them with Prom Night, Pump Up the Volume, Prom Night IV, Pretty in Pink, The Club, and Carrie. I’m not sure if I should be sad or glad to say that I’ve only seen three of those. Tucker’s redundancy hellhounds are already on their way to the prom, and Buffy is able to catch up to them and kill one of them, but they others ditch pursuing her in favor of finding munchies in the general direction of “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang (a song that will haunt me for the rest of my days as the Fairfield University Class of 2003 Orientation Week & Senior Week theme song). “Oh, come on! That song sucks.” I’m with you, B.

Buffy is able to chase down and kill the hellhounds before they do any damage to the “perfect night” she wanted for her friends. Mission accomplished! She pulls her pink prom gown, the one that she was sure would drive Angel crazy, out of her bag and she’s ready to join civilization where only a select few know what she’s done tonight and countless other nights. …Right?

Class superlatives are awarded at the Sunnydale prom. (“Most Musical” here!) “Class Clown” is awarded to Jack Mayhew, much to Xander’s chagrin. “Anybody can be a prop class clown.” He’s even wearing a balloon animal hat, which harkens back to Season 1’s Nightmares: “You are a lousy clown! Your balloon animals are pathetic! Everyone can make a giraffe!” Buffy seems bored with this whole ritual and partakes in the (weirdly bloody looking, and also reminiscent of the Master’s blood tap in The Wish) punch.

And then Jonathan takes the stage and asks, “Is Buffy Summers here tonight?” This was a weird moment in broadcast. Prior to this episode, Jonathan had just been the weird short kid who got to kiss the Inca Mummy Girl and be “You, by the dip” guy. You see, Earshot hadn’t aired with the rest of the season, in response to the panic the followed the Columbine tragedy. The emotional impact we feel is augmented when watching the episodes in the proper order; we know that Buffy has directly affected Jonathan and saved his life. This moment is special for both of them. It’s also a moment when the class as a whole publicly acknowledges that Sunnydale is not a normal town.

“Most of the people here have been saved by you, or helped by you at one time or another. We’re proud to say that the Class of ‘99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. And we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class, offers its thanks, and gives you, uh, this."

Jonathan presents Buffy with a sparkling, cute umbrella with an attached sign that says, “Buffy Summers, Class Protector.”

This is who Buffy is and this is her destiny. She protects the helpless. Whether or not she goes to college, being the Slayer and a protector is inherent to her nature and we know that it’s what she’ll do for the rest of her life. The entire student body recognizes Buffy shows its gratitude for what she does for them. It’s a moment that causes Giles to observe, “I had no idea that children en masse could be gracious.”

As Buffy responds, “Every now and then, people surprise you,” Giles sees what Buffy, and we, cannot: Angel has come to the dance, handsomely dressed in a tuxedo. And when Buffy turns to see him, she doesn’t shatter as she did when he told her that they couldn’t be together anymore. She possibly surprises herself by straightening her back, walking towards him, and greeting him.

Buffy: I never thought you’d come.
Angel: It’s a big night. I didn’t want to miss it. It’s just tonight. It doesn’t mean that I ...
Buffy: I know. I mean, I understand.
Angel: Dance with me?

And as they dance, The Sundays prophetically sing to us…

…Let’s do some living after love dies
Wild horses couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild horses, we’ll ride them some day

(Spoiler: This song is up there with “Mandy” for Buffy-Angel appropriateness. Go on. Google the lyrics. You know you want to.)