The nature of the double is to be dependent on, if not subservient to, the original body. On a meta level, Buffy’s tendency to encounter foils, is fascinating, is there something in the characters that subconsciously attracts those who identify? Or do they bring them into existence? Regardless, to be a double hinges on the existence of an original, a point of reference, that the double may or may not be consciously aware of. The doubles’ power is in its ability to dismantle to ‘make one feel as both himself and other than himself’, to overcome the original either through transforming into them (thus destabilising their own position) or through subsuming them and causing them to morph into the double (sometimes simultaneous processes but not always). Another episode full of doppelgängers; Buffy and Debbie, Angel and Pete, Oz and Angel, Oz and the werewolf (the not-Oz)(or is it Oz?), Buffy and Willow, and arguably more (another Faith episode though she’s considerably dormant; a subservient double. for now).
An episode about Oz isn’t really about Oz, the same way the story of Pete and Debbie isn’t really about them; they’re tools to explore the overarching story of Angel and Buffy. In a similae vein, like Buffy’s science teacher, Mr. Platt stabilises Buffy and brings her closer to self-reflection and self-actualisation; and like the last time, monsters disrupt and call Buffy’s sense of identity and stability into question. Angel is ofc the biggest example of this, like Mr. Platt says, ‘to make love your master is to become it’s dog’, an animalism Angel is continuously linked to in this episode, being chained up and lashing out, whilst Buffy attempts to subdue him. The slayer is the space in which BTVS explores the dualism and liminality of the feminine and the female bildungsroman; monstrousness and animalism is what it chooses to explore the masculine growing up (Angel, Oz, Xander), often in relation to the women in their life (Willow, Buffy). This includes Pete, who mirrors Angel in how ‘love’ subsumes him; Angel consistently calls Buffy’s identity into question, lover and mentor and father, who she’s formed so much of who she is in relationship to. Drusilla was a Buffy who ended up subsumed into his sphere, her sense of self and her identity fractured. In the next episode, once again, Angel’s presence serves to dismantle the stability Buffy had found in his absence, she becomes distracted, she loses her boyfriend, her attempt to once again regain that past slayerhood ended fails. And yet, Buffy once had to escape Angel to keep herself intact, to crawl out of hell (literally falling into the demon realm in 3.01), and it shows in how she’s outgrown her former role as Angel’s lover, even Angel’s leather jacket doesn’t swamp her the way it used to.
