“At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime.” - Zoe

By Sabrina Boyer

The term “doppelganger” is German for “double” and “walker,” and also means a ghostly double of a living person. There is definitely a double walker in this episode, and it is Willow. This ep is somewhat a “part two” to the previous season three episode “The Wish” where Cordy wishes Buffy had never come to Sunnydale and we are first introduced to Willow, vamp version. She makes a reappearance here as Anya tries to get her necklace back and instead, puts Vamp Willow in our real Buffy included Sunnydale reality. And it’s one of the best episodes of the entire series.

This is an episode of many things, particularly our introduction to D’Hofferyn, and we learn that Anya is some kind of vengeance demon who punishes men. “Do you have any idea how boring twelfth graders are?” Anya screams at D’Hofferyn. Meanwhile Will is working on her magic as Buffy is running getting buff Buffy for the slayer test that she and Faith are doing for Wesley. “I know Faith is never going to be on the cover of Sanity Fair, but different circumstances, that could be me,” Buffy reflects. All this talk about Faith and Will’s floating pencil goes all wacky.  Here we’re introduced to the very true and real idea that we are, on some level, a product of circumstances. If Faith had friends, family, and a caring watcher, would she be in line with the Mayor right now and hiding it?

And then poor Will is assigned to tutor Percy West. Of course he doesn’t take her seriously, until he meets Vamp Will. Will is annoyed that Snyder just expects people to do things at his will when Wesley brings Faith in from her laps and it’s Buffy’s turn. But Faith is pulling a double walker as well, as she’s spying on the Scoobies while reporting back to the Mayor. Sugar Daddy, aka the Mayor, gets Faith a “kick” apartment. It’s clear that they have developed a father/daughter relationship.  Will gets upset with having to tutor Percy and he doesn’t listen and expects her to do his work; she missed out on Oz’s band trip because he didn’t think she’d want to miss class. “You think I’m boring,” she responds. “Whoa, I’d say that’s a radical interpretation of the text,” Oz responds. It seems that Will really does need to find the fun. “I’m eating this now,” Will says as she pulls out a banana, “lunchtime be damned.” And then Buffy and Xander call her “old reliable,” then Xander confuses that with Old Faithful, Old Yeller, and “maybe I don’t want to be reliable all the time. Maybe I’ll change my look, you don’t know,” she replies.

After she storms off, Anya asks her to help with a spell to create a temporal fold to get her necklace back. We begin to see the Will and Anya relationship here as they dislike each other after Will sees that her spell isn’t as innocent as Anya suggests; rather she sees the alternate reality of Cordy’s wish and instead of conjuring the necklace, it conjures Vamp Willow into this reality. Uh oh. “That was, what was that? Ok, that’s a little blacker than I like my art. That was some weird hell place.” “I’m just trying to find my necklace,” Anya responds. “Did you try looking in the sofa in hell?” Will asks. This gets a little ironic since Willow warns Anya not to toy with magic. As we look back over these seasons, lots of little details begin to line up.

Welcome Vamp Willow to Sunnydale. It’s great to see a different version of Willow’s character and the chance to see the wide range of Alyson Hannigan’s acting ability. Vamp Will heads to The Bronze, a familiar place from her reality and runs into Percy only to kick his butt. “Bored now,” and she tosses him over a pool table. Xander comes in and sees this and thinks he’s hurting Will; he breaks it up and Vamp Will hugs him and gets all naughty. “Hands! Hands in new places!” Xan squeals. Buffy enters and doesn’t recognize Will at first. She’s decked out in leather and they confuse Vamp Will with regular Will, thinking she’s been turned. VW pick up some vamp lackeys and declares she’s going to make the world “as it was.”

As the Scoobies lament over Will’s supposed passing, when regular Will enters and says “Oh God, who died? Oh, who died?” Everyone heads in for hugs. The best response Giles can come up with is something is going on. And then my favorite part of the episode. Anya heads to The Bronze for a beer. “I.D.” says the bartender. “I’m 1120 years old just give me a freaking beer!”

“I.D.”

“Give me a Coke.” As Anya drinks her Coke and Oz and Angel talk, vamps invade the Bronze on behalf of Vamp Will. “Dude, check out your girlfriend.” Angel escapes to tell Buffy of Will’s death and they head to the Bronze to figure it out.  Anya and Vamp Will figure out that this isn’t her reality and they both want to go back.

As the gang heads out to stop the feeding frenzy, Will stays behind to get the tranq gun when Vamp Will grabs her. “Well, look at me, I’m all fuzzy.” Vamp Will wants to be a team, though, instead of maybe heading back to her own world. “Does that mean we’d have to snuggle?” As regular Will tranqs her, Vamp Will cries “Bitch.”

“That’s me as a vampire. I’m so skanky. And I think I’m kinda gay,” Willow muses. The gang come up with a plant to send human Willow into The Bronze as Vamp Will while Vamp Will is passed out at the library. As she comes out in the leather outfit, it’s binding and she says “Gosh, look at those!” indicating her breasts. And of course, Xander looks. Hard. This dialogue just can’t get any better.

Even though regular Will tries to pass as Vamp Will, soon they find out via Anya that she’s not the “real” vamp. Meanwhile, Cordy gets chased by Vamp Will at the school. “I’m a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!” Will demands at The Bronze when she’s called out. Fights ensue and all ends well with regular Will stopping Buffy right before she stakes her vampire half. They prepare to send her back to her own reality, but not before Vamp and Regular Will share a few moments about this world being no fun and a creepy self-touching hug moment as regular Will screams “Hands! Hands!” And then she’s back in her reality, only to get herself staked by Oz.

Will feels like O.D.ing on virtue as Percy gives her two reports, one on each President Roosevelt as well as an apple. Sometimes having a doppelganger can be a good thing. And, to think scientifically, it’s possible there are alternate realities, and if so, we might all have doppelgangers.

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About Sabrina Boyer: As a kid my dad would sneak scary movies past my mom and let me indulge in his horror movie fetish. I grew up watching V, Alien Nation, The Thing, The Fog (all originals) and then, in 1992 when Buffy the movie came out, I became obsessed with vampires, girl power, and all things gothic. I once stayed home from school, faked sick, and watched BTVS: the movie 6 times in a row. I know the beginning cheerleading dance by heart (still). Currently, I’m obsessing over Laurell K. Hamilton novels, and dream about Anita Blake being my best friend.

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