Okay so I’m rewatching Buffy for the nth time and I just noticed something about episode 4.
Like, I remembered the plot well enough- you don’t forget “it’s scary to fall in love with my substitute teacher because what if they’re secretly a praying mantis who wants to eat my face.”
But what I didn’t quite put together is that the teacher who gets killed in the beginning of the episode was probably the only person on the show who believed in Buffy as Buffy Summers and not Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Like, everyone who knows Buffy Summers thinks she’s a screw up- bad grades, no commitment to homework, skipped classes, got in fights, burned down a gym, was expelled from her past school. Only those who know about the Slayer know to overlook these blights as necessary to her fight against evil. Normal people, those who don’t know, always think she’s a screw up- even her mom.
This teacher on episode four who dies before the intro saw Buffy Summers. Saw the sharp girl in the back of the class, quick-witted, good on her feet, with all her flaws and blights and said, ‘don’t listen to anyone’s negative opinion about you. I see your potential. I see your ability. Put in the effort and show them how well you can succeed because I know you can.’
Giles is good enough- he becomes a father figure even- but it’s hinged in his belief of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not for Buffy Summers. The way his guidance and care for Willow, for example, isn’t clouded by his belief that she must be something in the fight against the end times. Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Giles must shape up- and while played for comical relief, this is demonstrated in his inability to understand her desire to be Normal Teen Girl who tries out for cheerleading and skips fights to go to prom.
Buffy only mattered to people, only felt like she succeeded, as Buffy the Vampire Slayer- except for this random guy who dies 5 minutes into the episode and is never mentioned again.
And I think Buffy being robbed of that genuine belief in her is what comes back to get her after college since nobody ever says that to her again.
