This week on Buffy and the Art of Story: Teacher's Pet, Season 1, Episode 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The episode focuses on point-of-view, tone, and all the major plot points from opening conflict to the climax.
As always, the discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).
Story Elements in Teacher's Pet
In this podcast episode we'll look at how Buffy handles:
Viewpoint Characters in a Xander-centric episode
Opening Conflict
Story Spark (a/k/a Inciting Incident)
The first major plot turn
The story mid-point
The three-quarter twist
The climax
Falling Action
Highlights from the Buffy Season 1 DVD commentaries by Joss Whedon are also discussed.
For more on the 5-point story structure the podcast covers, you can check out Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting And Writing Your Novel.
The 7 Season Plan
Buffy and the Art of Story plans to cover every episode of Buffy in order and spoiler-free -- except at the end so I can talk about foreshadowing, but I'll give you plenty of warning.
Down the road there'll be a Patreon account where you'll be able to get a free story structure template. As a patron, you'll also get access to bonus episodes.
Those episodes will include Buffy-adjacent stories (such as key Angel episodes). Also films or TV episodes that are intriguing from a story, theme, or character perspective.
Requests will be welcome.
Next Up: Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, S1 E5
Episode Transcript for Teacher's Pet
Hello, and welcome, or welcome back, to Buffy and the Art of Story. I am Lisa M. Lilly, author of suspense, mysteries, and supernatural thrillers and founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com. 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.
This week we're talking about Episode Four of Season One: Teacher’s Pet.
Teacher's Pet is a standalone episode, so we'll cover all the plot points and turns. Plus, we'll talk about point of view, and prologue.
The discussion will be spoiler-free, except at the very end, and I'll give you plenty of warning.
Okay, let's dive into the Hellmouth.
The Prologue of Teacher's Pet
We start with a prologue -- a woman is screaming, a vampire's attacking, Buffy seems really nervous. Already this scene just doesn't feel right. And I love that about it. Because although all those things could be happening in Buffy -- and this is only Episode 4 -- we already have a sense that the way Buffy is acting just doesn't feel like her.
Then we have that confirmed when Xander says, “May I cut in?” and he slays the vampires.
So we are in Xander's fantasy -- could be a dream -- but we find out it's a daydream. Because it ends with Buffy saying, “You're drooling.” We cut to the science class where she is really saying, “You're drooling.”
What Is A Prologue?
This is a prologue because it could be lifted out from the main plot without hurting anything because it really is giving us backstory.
But it does something key, which is to tell us that at least some of this episode will be from Xander's point of view. And that is -- it's not that we haven't seen scenes before that Buffy is not in. Sometimes we've seen scenes with side characters or with the villain, particularly the Master. But they haven't been specifically from the emotional point of view of another key character who is on Buffy’s side, at least not to this extent.
Is Xander the Protagonist of Teacher's Pet?
So I can see a reason to have this prologue. It is setting up Xander's internal conflict, which was hinted at earlier. There are his feelings for Buffy, and his feelings that he is not quite a man.
Earlier, he linked that to not being able to fight vampires. But we're going to see -- well, I shouldn't say ‘but’ -- we see that in this fantasy his feeling that impressing Buffy, being a man, is being able to fight not just as well as she does, but better.
This prologue also points to something that I struggle with in the episode. Which is: Who is the protagonist? Because next we get to what is, I think, the real Opening Conflict of the story. It's the conflict that hints at our main plot, and it is certainly the Opening Conflict for Buffy, who, though I struggle with it, I think is the protagonist in this episode.
Opening Conflict
So she's in science class and the teacher, Dr. Gregory, asks her questions, Willow is pantomiming the answers. Buffy does a pretty good job, but it becomes obvious what's happening.
We expect Dr. Gregory to be angry at her when he has her stay after class. But instead he tells her she's smart. She thinks on her feet. And she should not let anyone else's negative opinions about her influence her.
He encourages her, or basically tells her, “Hey, imagine if you did the work, how good you could do here.” She says sorry for not doing the homework. And he says, “Don't be sorry. Be smart.” Buffy is very energized by this.
This is, as I think Xander will comment later, the only teacher who has really formed a positive opinion of her, or at least who has expressed it.
So we have that Opening Conflict in the sense that it is Buffy’s internal conflict. Not just living a normal life, but with how people see her. And the way that being a Slayer interferes with her being able to really take part in school and excel in other ways.
Teacher's Pet and the Story Spark
Immediately after that, in what is typical Joss Whedon fashion, we have something wonderfulfor one of our characters we love, and it is immediately taken away. A claw grabs Dr. Gregory, and then we have credits.
Back to Xander’s Point of View
We are once again in Xander's point of view after the credits.
We’re at The Bronze. One of the musicians on stage kind of scoffs at Xander when Xander gives a little wave as if he knows him. And this reflects back that part of his fantasy in the beginning. was being a great musician and being on stage himself. Getting all the attention.
Then Blaine and another guy are bragging about women and putting Xander on the spot. Making fun of him because they think that he's a virgin, and they are acting like they have all this experience.
So he pretends that he does, too. He puts his arms around Buffy and Willow and wants to make it seem like they're both his girlfriends.
This further suggests this is Xander's story.
Buffy and Angel
We do switch to Buffy because she sees Angel and she leaves. They have a conversation, he says something cryptic about a cut that he has, and he gives Buffy his leather jacket and disappears.
This is more of Angel showing up, looking good, giving some information (usually about something ominous) and leaving.
The show kind of calls that out because we have Buffy referring to him as “Cryptic Guy” to Giles. Also, she calls -- I forget how Angel describes the vampire that attacked him -- but Buffy calls him “Fork Guy.”
I like this for a couple of reasons. It does call out the fact that this is all that Angel is really doing to this point, but it's also a nice use of the language of the show.
On Writing Dialogue
One of the things Buffy is known for, as I'm sure all of you know because you're listening to this, is the character’s language and the dialogue. It's very specific to the world of Buffy. Which -- side note -- is a good way to create dialogue if you're trying to get a certain age or a certain community. Create your own dialogue.
When Buffy came out, Joss Whedon used to get a lot of questions about how did he capture how teenagers talk. He basically said he didn't, he just created his own -- their own -- slang.
He created the slang.
And I guess that's more what I'm getting at. Slang is difficult to use in fiction because it quickly becomes dated. For the most part the language in Buffy doesn't, because Joss created their own slang.
Some of it is a little clunky. In the pilot episode, we see a few times Buffy or other people saying, “What's the sitch?” instead of “What's the situation?” And that doesn't survive, I think with good reason.
But this idea of Cryptic Guy, Fork Guy, we will see that type of language throughout this series.
Xander Admires Angel
This is also the first time that Willow and Xander see Angel. Xander comments on him being very attractive.
And I like that there's a couple of layers there. One is the jealousy of Angel. Xander apparently hadn't realized this guy Buffy was talking about was good looking. But I also like that you get the feeling Xander really just appreciates that Angel is a very attractive man.
Building from the Story Spark
At school we find out, or our characters find out, Dr. Gregory is missing. They're talking about it. Mid-sentence Xander stops talking, loses the ability to speak coherently, when he sees Ms. French, the very attractive substitute teacher. Xander is unable to explain to her where the classroom is. Blaine's swoops in, takes her to class.
So we are building from our Opening Conflict and our Story Spark or Inciting Incident -- which I think I skipped right over. It would be that claw grabbing Dr. Gregory. That's our Inciting Incident, our Story Spark.
We are building from that, the fact that Dr. Gregory has something terrible happen to him, building up to the One-Quarter Point in the story. And on the way there we see Buffy noticing that Dr. Gregory's glasses are on the floor and cracked. She questions why, if he's just taking the day off, why would his glasses be here?
Praying or Preying?
And we have Ms. French talking about the preying mantis and its mating habits.
As I look at my notes, I have to note that probably until I saw this show, I was always thinking the preying mantis was P. R. A. Y. I. N. G. like, pray, like say your prayers. Who knows why, because that makes absolutely no sense. And in this episode that I was like, “Oh,...
