This week on the podcast Buffy and the Art of Story: Halloween (Season 2 Episode 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer):
(1) why Buffy is the protagonist but someone else saves the day; (2) Willow gains confidence incrementally; and (3) we see another side to Giles that foreshadows future episodes and keeps us coming back.
As always, the discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).
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Episode Transcript for Halloween
Hello and welcome to Buffy and the Art of Story Season Two. If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you love creating stories – or just taking them apart to see how they work – you’re in the right place.
I am Lisa M Lilly, author of the Awakening supernatural thriller series and the Q.C. Davis mysteries and founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.
This week we're talking about Halloween, Season Two Episode Six.
What's In Store For Halloween
I'll cover:
how the writers handle side key character emotional arcs;
story questions about Giles that keep the viewers hooked and coming back for future episodes;
small progress in ongoing storylines like Willow and Oz, which also help keep viewers coming back; and
how Buffy can still be the protagonist when another character saves the day.
As always, there will be no Spoilers except at the end to talk about foreshadowing but I'll give you plenty of warning.
Okay, let's dive into the Hellmouth.
Halloween was written by Carl Ellsworth and directed by Bruce Seth Green.
Opening Conflict
We start with our Opening Conflict. Right away, we see a sign that says Pop's Pumpkin Patch. Buffy is thrown on the ground. Hay and pumpkins are all around. She fights back against the vampire by throwing small pumpkins and gourds at him.
As they are fighting the viewpoint shifts. We see a vampire holding a video camera. He is recording the entire fight from a safe distance. Buffy finally uses another sign that is wooden and on a wooden stake. She uses it to dust the vampire. Despite that she won, she leaves looking fairly disgusted.
This is about 1 minute 36 seconds in, and we go to credits. After the Credits we get the conflict that is at the heart of the story.
Remember, our Opening Conflict in a story can be what hints at our main plot or it can be completely unrelated and just there to bring the reader into the protagonists or another character's ordinary world.
Here, we had both in the pumpkin patch. This definitely brought us into Buffy's ordinary world – yet another night of fighting vampires. We will also see right after the credits how that plays into the emotional conflict of the episode, which is the heart of the plot.
Angel Alone At The Bronze
We switch to the Bronze. But we see Angel, not Buffy. Angel is alone at a table, looking very awkward and kind of glancing around, his elbows on the table. Cordelia joins him. She is waiting for Devon who was mentioned, I think in the last episode. He is the lead singer she is dating, and it appears he is late or is just not showing up.
She says something about how he thinks being in a band gives him an excuse to treat her badly. And she says my first favorite quote of the episode.
Cordelia (to Angel): His loss is your incredible gain.
Buffy shows up a few moments later. She sees Cordelia and Angel together. He is laughing at something Cordelia said. As soon he sees Buffy, though, he heads over to her. He picks a leaf out of her hair.
Cordelia comes up behind him and says something snarky like, “Love the hair, Buffy. It just screams street urchin.”
Nearing The Inciting Incident In Halloween
Buffy says she needs to go. Angel tells her she looks fine but, at about 4 minutes in, she says dates are for normal girls with time to think about nail polish and facials. She thinks about things like ambush tactics and beheadings. Not the things dreams are made of. And she leaves.
This take on romance and relationships is somewhat shallow or superficial, but Buffy is only sixteen ,and she is really struggling with that feeling that having fun and dating is something that maybe just can't be part of her world anymore.
I mentioned the timing because we are coming to our Story Spark or Inciting Incident. That normally comes about 10% into the episode, sometimes a little bit later. So here we were right about 10%.
The Story Spark
I think that these comments from Cordelia, and Buffy feeling like she just can't be in that world of dating and socializing and having fun that she so longs to be part of, is the Story Spark here.Bbecause it both sets off Buffy's emotional arc in the episode, and it is why she later chooses the costume that she does for Halloween. Without that we would still have a Halloween story, but it wouldn't be this story.
After Buffy leaves, Cordelia comes up behind Angel with a large cup of I guess it's cappuccino because she says, “Cappuccino?”
Trick Or Treat Orders
At 4 minutes 29 seconds in, so a little bit past or probably right at the 10%, we are back at Sunnydale High.
Lots of Halloween decorations everywhere. Principal Snyder is “volunteering” students, which means requiring them to sign up to take little kids trick or treating. He ropes Buffy, Xander, and Willow in though he instructs Buffy not to speak to any of the kids because they don't need her influence.
You can imagine that living somewhere like Sunnydale you definitely wouldn't want your little kids going trick-or-treating alone.
He also tells them that costumes are mandatory.
So this too could be seen as the Story Spark because if Snyder didn't require costumes, we also probably wouldn't have this story. Maybe the answer is we need them both. These things have to combine to incite this story.
Giles Expects A Quiet Night And Xander Gets Mad
We learn that Giles has told Buffy that, contrary to what we all might think, Halloween is generally pretty quiet. As Buffy puts it, it’s dead for the undead.
Xander puts money in the vending machine. Before he can get his soda out a new character, Larry, walks up and asks Xander if he thinks Buffy might go out with him (with Larry). And he says he heard she was fast. Xander gets angry. He grabs Larry, who is much bigger than him, and threatens him.
Larry reaches his arm back to punch Xander, and Buffy grabs Larry's arm, twists it behind his back, and shoves him up against the vending machine. And gets a free soda for her trouble. She tells Xander, “You're welcome.”
But Xander is angry. He says, “A blackeye heals, Buffy, but cowardice has an unlimited shelf life.”
What Is Angel’s Type?
Buffy feels bad that she has unwittingly broken the guy code. She and Willow commiserate. Buffy also tells Willow about being late for her date and says Angel wasn't mad. In fact, he was unmad, probably because he was with Cordelia.
Willow tries to reassure her, saying Angel would never fall for Cordelia's act. And Buffy says something like, “You mean showing up wearing a stunning outfit and embracing personal hygiene act?”
Willow And Buffy Hatch A Plot
And she goes on to say she really doesn't know Angel’s type. They have not talked that much. He doesn't overshare, as Buffy says.
Willow gets an idea. And this is a nice exchange between them. A fun use of dialogue to show what in a novel might be a character's inner thought process, but would be done so much better this way, where our two friends play off each other.
Willow: Too bad we can't sneak in and read the Watchers’ Diaries. They’re full of fun facts to know and tell.
Buffy: Oh, they are, and it's too bad because they are private.
Willow: Yes, and they’re also in Giles’ office in his personal files.
Buffy: Most importantly, it would be wrong.
Distracting Giles
Of course, our next scene is Willow and Buffy peering through the little window in the doors to the library. Buffy goes in. Giles then surprises her by coming out of the book cage.
He starts talking to her. She does her best to distract him while Willow sneaks in behind him goes to his office to get the diaries. Buffy runs through all kinds of topics, including asking more about Halloween. Which is really nice way to give the viewers a little bit more information while there is tension. Because we don't know if Giles is going to turn around and see what Willow is doing.
Finally, a truly desperate Buffy blurts out that Miss Calendar said that Giles was a babe. She is clearly making this up. Giles, though, is distracted, so she achieves her goal.
This also has the effect of reminding viewers about Giles and Jenny C
