Halloween
Written by: Carl Ellsworth
Directed by: Bruce Seth Green
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Anthony Head, David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, and Seth Green
Welcome to episode 6, in which the biggest scares are reserved for Feminists.
Let’s do this.
Outfit 1
The lighting on this series is very spooky. I cannot see a fucking thing. Luckily this is Buffy’s standard Patrol to Bronze look. Blue top, black pants, boots, leather jacket.
This is nice. I was never much into Buffy’s patrol looks. It was probably the boots. Still feeling a little tender about not being able to fit into knee-high boots. Here she sees Cordy trying to cut her grass with Angel again and wonders if she’s not ‘ladylike’ enough for him. Ugh.
Outfit 2
I had to get in how cute these slides are with the pants.
Willow’s boho look is beautifully Willow-ified with the Gazelles. I want red Gazelles. And light pink ones. All of the Gazelles.
They’re in the bathroom having stolen diaries about Angel from Giles. This is where Buffy gets it into her head she should change everything about herself to appeal to her boyfriend. Despite 1) Him never suggesting he doesn’t like her the way she is and 2) The fact it doesn’t matter what he thinks. Patriarchy, am I right?
The hair here is wonderful. I still love this hair the most. Buffy and Willow are perplexed by Cordelia - she refuses to believe Angel is a vampire.
Meanwhile there’s nothing perplexing about how amazing Cordy’s preppy look is.
Outfit 3
Behold: the Halloween costume. I never understood why people don’t dress in scary costumes for Halloween. All of my costumes have a requirement of shit-tonnes of fake blood and scary makeup. Ideas I’ve come up with so far:
- Zombie girl
- Serial killer victim
- Crazed surgeon
- Murderous prom date
- Miranda’s corpse (if they’d found her) from Picnic at Hanging Rock
I’m still waiting for the chance to do murderous prom date and crazed surgeon. This is why I really didn’t understand Buffy’s choice of costume. It’s just a princess costume.
I have written about this costume in a previous bonus episode about hair. Look, it’s perfectly fine to want to dress feminine or masculine or neither or both.
When I was a teenager I desperately wanted to see Buffy dress as a princess. I endorsed her efforts to secure Angel as a paramour. Now I watch it and cringe and find it scary but I see that this is all a part of finding yourself and accepting the love you deserve. The love you deserve is one that you don’t have to earn or don’t have to change for.
Meanwhile, Buffy tells Willow the true meaning of Halloween is to dress as something different to yourself. Which is her very diplomatic way of telling Willow that Halloween is a time to ‘dress slutty.’
BTW, dressing like a ‘slut’ is perfectly ok if that’s what you want to do. Also being a ‘slut’ is ok too. I mean, Regina George looks sick as hell here.
As does Willow. I thought Willow looked amazing here as a teen. And as an adult, I still think she looks insanely good. Buffy’s advice to Willow is a little off, because I think she wants Willow to be confident so she can attract the attention of boys. But she’s also actually right about the confidence thing. Too bad she’s not really following her own advice. Also last time she inspired Willow to step out of her comfort zone she was almost murdered.
But Willow feels uncomfortable and goes with her original idea:
Also fine, if a little more constrictive than her previous getup.
FIERCE.
So everyone’s fine and taking kids trick-or-treating or whatever and nothing’s going too badly.
Except this fuck’s starting some shit and turning everyone into their costume.
It makes Buffy...
Fucking useless.
Earlier in the episode Xander tries to defend Buffy to a bit of a jerk at school. Then when she can actually defend herself Xander gets upset with her. So he decides his costume should be super masculine and goes with army dude.
And annoyingly I like him better this way.
Angel’s shirt is scaring me.
Willow and Giles realise Ethan Rayne is responsible for all these shenanigans.
Giles is so hot when he’s just punched someone.
He and Willow fix everything and Buffy goes back to kicking ass having learned a valuable lesson about being yourself.
And Willow learns she’s pretty good, no matter what she looks like.
Oz concurs.
Outfit 4
Tracky dacks are beautiful no matter the decade.
I wish Angel would take this shirt off. Mostly because I don’t like it.
Happy Halloween or whatever!
Next up, Buffy reconnects with an old friend and discovers sometimes that’s a bit shit.
Until then, Slayerettes.
