This Is Just My Outfit (Halloween)
Part 18 of the Insect Reflection, a series of essays covering every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
“Do you love my insides? The parts you can’t see?”
Drusilla asks Spike this question early in the episode, and it lays out the theme pretty clearly. This is an episode about hidden selves, about duality. It’s about taking a look at the characters’ Inner Selves – the parts we can’t see – and comparing them to their outward presentations – the parts we can. We are invited to consider whether the Inner Self is something that should be loved and celebrated, or hidden away for the good of others. And we should compare that to the image that these characters present to the world – the costumes that they wear.
The costume, in this case, is the Outer Self – the version of ourselves we present to the world. This can be a reflection of the Inner Self, or a means to hide it – or somewhere in between. One of the most basic questions about humanity is which of these Selves is the “true” self? Are we what we do? Are we the person others see? Or are we what we are inside? These are questions far too big and esoteric for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer blog to answer, but Halloween does scratch at their surfaces in some interesting ways.
In two very specific ways, I think. First, through the idea of costumes as concealing a hidden sef, and secondly the idea of costume as gender performance. Two different ways of interacting with and expressing the Inner Self, and two lenses through which we will look at this episode.
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