Buffy and the Art of Story starts with Season 1, Episode 1, Welcome to the Hellmouth.
For writers and other story creators who want to learn more about plot, characterization, and other story elements by watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Every discussion is spoiler-free, except at the end (with plenty of warning).
Story Elements in Welcome to the Hellmouth:
In this podcast episode we'll look at how Welcome to the Hellmouth handles:
Prologue
Exposition
Opening Conflict
Story Spark (a/k/a Inciting Incident)
The first major plot turn
A strong story Mid-point
We'll also talk about some highlights from the Buffy Season 1 DVD commentaries by Joss Whedon.
Next Up: The Harvest
The 7 Season Plan
After Welcome to the Hellmouth, 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 page where patrons can download 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.
Episode Transcript of Welcome to the Hellmouth
Welcome To The Hellmouth S1 E1
Hello and welcome to Buffy and the Art of Story. 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 suspense, mysteries, and supernatural thrillers and founder of WritingAsASecondCareer.com.
Each week I'll talk about one episode of Buffy in order, covering plot turns and other story elements. The discussion will be spoiler-free except at the very end, and I'll give you plenty of warning.
Today we'll start with Welcome To The Hellmouth, the first half of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer pilot. We’ll cover the opening conflict, the plot point at the one-quarter mark of the story as a whole and the Midpoint which is where the story breaks until the next episode.
I'll also talk about prologues because we have one here, and exposition because Buffy as a whole does exposition so wonderfully well.
Okay, let's dive into the Hellmouth.
Prologue
We start with what looks like two high school students breaking into a high school. Neither of these two characters are our protagonist. And the events here come before the story starts, which is what makes this a prologue.
The young man and young woman break in.
The girl seems nervous, and the boy is reassuring her and kind of luring her further into the high school where it's deserted. She keeps saying “I think I hear something” or “are you sure there's no one here?”
Subverting Tropes
He's the one who seems so confident about being here and wanting to get her alone. And then it turns on its head and the girl goes into vamp face and attacks him. So immediately we have this subverting of the horror movie trope. Even though we don't see Buffy we do see that this is going to be part of what this show is—or the heart of what the show is.
This pretty blond who we traditionally had thought of as the victim becomes the one who others fear. And then we cut.
There is a lot of controversy among authors and readers about the use of prologues. Because by definition they come before our story starts. As a reader I sometimes have to push past a book with a prologue.
By that I mean I've got to push myself to read it. That's because I know if I become really engaged with these characters and this story it's going to end shortly and yank me into probably a different time. Maybe a different place. Very likely totally different characters. Although often, as here, one of our antagonists is who we see in the prologue. And here Darla will come back in our pilot episode and be I would say part of the antagonistic force here.
The Antagonist of Welcome to the Hellmouth
The Master is our overall antagonist.
One author at a writing conference that I went to said he does use prologues in his books, but he always calls them Chapter One. Probably to avoid people like me who look at prologue and say “Oh, I don't I don't know.”
All that being said, here I think the prologue is very nicely done.
It serves a purpose of telling us the tone of the series. Because it is that mix of horror and it is a little bit funny because it is so what we're not expecting.
Dramatic Irony
It also creates dramatic irony, which is where the audience or reader knows something that our protagonist doesn't. Because we will see Darla later, and we as the audience will know she's a vampire. But the character talking to her does not know that. So it creates a tension there as well because we're aware that Darla is a threat.
On the side of those who might say you don't need this prologue, you truly could, other than that dramatic irony, you could lift this prologue right out. It would not make any difference to the plot. We would certainly figure out that there are vampires. We see this boy’s dead body fall out of a locker later. And, you know, we would infer what happened, though we wouldn't know it was Darla.
Opening Conflict and Exposition
To our opening conflict, which is the first point that I look at when I'm starting a story or if I'm examining someone else's to see how well it works for me.
First we see Buffy having these nightmares. This is an example of exposition—the one place where I find it just a little bit clunky because we have these vampires, the crosses, this imagery that doesn't move our plot forward. That being said because it's the beginning of the series, I think this works very well.
And in the DVD commentaries, I don't think it's in the scene-by-scene, I think it's in an interview with Joss, he talks about how he did this because it was a way to sum up the events of the movie for those people who had not seen the movie.
I had seen it. I thought it was kind of fun.
It wouldn't necessarily have drawn me back into the show except that a friend who is a screenwriter. He knows what kind of things I liked and worked at Warner Brothers at the time. He kept saying to me, “I think you would really like this show.”
And I loved it obviously or I wouldn't be doing this podcast.
So we get these nightmares that kind of fill us in on the background. And one thing I really love about that sequence is that Buffy wakes up and we as a viewer are expecting her to be afraid about the nightmares.
And in fact, we find out almost immediately what she's afraid about is the first day of high school.
Joyce, Buffy, And Exposition Through Conflict
We then get some wonderful exposition with her and Joyce (Buffy's mom). Joyce drops Buffy off at school and she is mostly reassuring Buffy: “I think you're going to do great and this is going to be a good school.”
But as Buffy gets out she says, “Honey, try not to get kicked out.” And Buffy says, “I promise.”
This so nicely gives us that back story of Buffy having been kicked out. It also tells us a lot about the relationship between these two. Joyce is being supportive, and yet she is worried about Buffy. And she does throw in this this this comment, which is something of a criticism, obviously pointing out to Buffy something that Buffy knows.
But she does it in a playful way.
So I don't get the sense that this is ongoing—Joyce angry at Buffy or expecting her to fail. She's just saying you know, “hey, be careful” and Buffy's response tells us that she takes it that way because she says “I promise.”
It tells us she really wants to do well at this new school. She does not want to have confrontation with her mom. She wants her mom to be happy with her.
So it tells us a lot about both of them.
More Exposition Through Strong Conflict
We then move to Buffy and Principal Flutie. Another great example of working in exposition while moving the story forward. And Principal Flutie, I love him as a character because we see that he wants to be this great principal who is on the student’s side.
He wants to be on Buffy’s side, and he's telling her, you know, “This is a clean slate and you know, you got kicked out of your old school, but you have a fresh start here and we want to serve you.” Yet.
We get this internal conflict. That is shown by his actions when he actually looks at why she got kicked out sees that she burned down the gym.
He is still saying these kinds of supportive things but his tone changes. And while he previously was ripping up her paper record about her old school to demonstrate how she has this fresh start now, he's taping it back together.
Buffy in response is trying to explain what happened. We get her internal conflict as well with being the Slayer but having to cover that up. And we see how much she wants to get along and do well in this school and how hard it is for her.
She says, “You know, that gym was filled with vampires,” and switches to “asbestos”.
And this tells us how much Buffy really wants to be seen as that girl that she was before this happened. She wants to be able to explain to the principal. But she knows that she can't so she is stuck with being in this spot where people see her as a potential danger.
Principal Flutie wants to support her, but he also has a responsibility to his other students. And this student coming in who burnt down her gym is a danger.
So we've got the conflict between the two of them.
Internal Conflict
And we have each of their internal conflicts. So even though Principal Flutie is talking about things that Buffy knows — that she got kicked out that she burned down the gym — there is a narrative purpose for that to come out.
And that's the difference between a compelling scene where we learn about these characters and we move the story
