By Sabrina Boyer

So every Scoobie has a superpower; Buffy is the slayer, Giles is the watcher, Willow is a witch, Oz is a werewolf, Angel is a vampire, Faith is a slayer (and at least for a few more eps, an honorary Scoobie) and Xander is a, Xander is a, well, he’s Xander. The pun, the goof, the one that makes us laugh. The one that distracts the demon so Buffy and the gang can slay them.

By Sabrina Boyer

Little Red Riding Hood always creeped me out. I mean, I like the fact that a young girl could outsmart a wicked bad wolf, but if we think in terms of metaphor and cautionary tales, the big bad wolf could be anything that goes bump in the night, including vampires, demons, or pedophiles. Ew.

By Sabrina Boyer

Everyone knows the story of Hansel and Gretel, right? A father abandons his two little kids in a forest because he does not have the money to feed them; knowing this, the kids leave breadcrumbs behind so they can find their way back to their house. However, the breadcrumbs are eaten by the forest creatures; Hansel and Gretel stumble upon a house made of gingerbread and candy and are invited in by the old woman who lives there so she can fatten them up and eat them. Outsmarting the old woman, the kids end up shoving her in the oven, escaping, and finding their way back home. Now, is it me, or does this sound like any number of creepy slashery scary movies in the last ten years? This is supposed to be a children’s fairy tale? Seriously?

By Sabrina Boyer

So this isn’t one of my favorite episodes, and when I did a year long Buffy lecture series, my co-sponsor and I debated about whether or not we should show clips from this episode when we discussed season three.

By Sabrina Boyer

So I’m super nervous about covering this episode. There’s just so much that happens here not least of which we get introduced to my favorite Buffy character of all time: Anyanka. If you don’t just love her when she’s newly human and strangely literal, then you must love her when you find out she’s a vengeance demon, particularly one that punishes men that have scorned women. I mean, you just can’t get a better career choice if you’re going to be in the evil league of evil.

By Sabrina Boyer

Ok, so you know it’s bad if Spike is giving you love advice. There’s definitely something wrong if your relationship is more complicated than Spike and Dru’s. Poor Spikie.

By Sabrina Boyer

In my feminist studies, we oftentimes discuss the competitive nature of the patriarchal society in which we live, particularly for women as we are taught to compete against each other for men, jobs, attractiveness, etc. Because of this, we have a difficult time connecting and bonding, maintaining friendships and relationships with other women like ourselves.

By Sabrina Boyer

I think I need to start this off by saying that this is one of my most favorite quotable episodes…ever. How can you not love this episode when Giles begins with something ominous and paranormal like helping Buffy study for the SATs? “It’s a rite of passage, Buffy,” says Giles. “Is it too late to join a tribe where they pierce something or cut something off?” All systems tend toward chaos, and the SATs and the mayor are no different. Mr. Trick is now working for the mayor, and some kind of outsourcing is happening which will supposedly turn Sunnydale upside down. Is it ever sunny side up?

By Sabrina Boyer

I was never a homecoming queen. Secretly, at times, I wanted to be, but then I saw the fake smiling, the balancing act of wearing a cheap crown and the bull$h!t that went along with being the supposed choice of the best of the best. I’m sure Buffy sees this too in this episode, but she has something to prove to herself, and something to prove to Sunnydale.

By Sabrina Boyer

So apparently, Oz has a thing about rabbits. I’ve never noticed this before, but at the beginning of this episode, as Will reads Call of the Wild, Oz seems to get excited when she mentions the bunnies. And later, we find out so does Anya. What’s up with the bunny phobia in the Buffyverse?

By Sabrina Boyer

If Faith were to run a personal ad, it might read something like this: “sexy slayer type likes to ‘rassle’ gators, save bus loads of Baptists in the nude from vampires, and lives by a personal motto of ‘Want. Take. Have.’ You must be male. Looking for some NSA good time fun while in Sunnydale.” At least, that’s the notion we get when we first meet the next slayer.

By Sabrina Boyer
So, the last time we encountered the Scoobies, Buffy had to murder Angel almost immediately after his alter ego, Angelus, began to suck the world into hell by pulling out the sword of Acathla. Buffy freaked as any girl would at having to kill her one and only true love, and skedaddled all the way to L.A. to live as Anne, a timid waitress who ignores her sacred duty of slayerdom. Poor Buffy. I mean, Anne.

By Sabrina Boyer The continuation of Becoming, Part 1 continues right into badness. Double badness. For Buffy, for Angel, for Giles, for the world. You’ll see what I mean. Related Stuff:

By Sabrina Boyer Let’s circle back to Thanksgiving 2002; a certain young woman was holed up in her house, grading papers, and flipping channels to try to distract her from her students’ horrendous essays. She stumbles upon FX, and low and behold, a Buffy marathon is on. She has never really seen Buffy before, though [...]