Episode 3: The Witch

Season One, Episode Three

"The Witch"

The beginning speech that Giles gives to Buffy makes me giggle. It sounds like Buffy is doing something horrific and then you just learn that she wanted to become a cheerleader (which actually sounds sort of horrific.)

And now we see magic with a barbie...*more on this later*

Even though I'm supposed to be mocking this episode, I really think it's a good episode for being in the first season. One of the (many) reasons why I love Joss is that he's able to deal with issues that stray far enough away from reality that we can examine them thoroughly. This episode shows how insane we can get about small things. I mean Amy's mom performing magic to seriously harm teenagers and her own daughter just to relive her cheer leading days? Talk about crazy.

"Sounds like her mom doesn't have a lot to do"

Joyce and Buffy’s relationship is strange. Obviously Joyce has read a lot of parenting books but when it comes to actually listening to Buffy, she isn’t great. Buffy clearly is asking for attention and Joyce shoves her aside without realizing that Buffy is asking for a relationship like Amy and her mother have.

"You're like my guy friend that knows about girl stuff"

I’m glad this whole love triangle-type situation between the group goes away. It’s bound to happen when you’re friends with people of the opposite sex, but I enjoy it much more when they realize that they don’t need to form a romantic relationship and it’s perfectly fine for them just be have a platonic relationship. I also prefer it much more when Willow realizes that she's gay because it gives me a better chance.

First rant! When Willow gets into magic, I never remember there being so many barbies involved. I mean look at this craziness!

So. Many. Barbies.

I have no idea why there are so many barbies! It makes me laugh because I keep imagining every in the writers room being all Joss: "you know what would be funny? We should have tons of barbies!" Other writers: "Lol, great idea Joss *thumbs up*"

And now I’m going to echo Kali’s point about Buffy and how she should just tell her mother. However, I understand why she doesn’t. I sort of see Buffy’s need to tell her mother about her slayerness as akin to coming out to your parents as LGBT. You can only do it once and you want it to go well; it’s so important to you and you want your parents to understand how significant it is. If Buffy would have told her mother within this season, it wouldn’t have gone well because her mother wouldn’t have reacted the way Buffy would have hoped for. Unfortunately, not telling her leads to her being “outed” but I understand the need Buffy felt to wait. 

I'm sort of getting bored with this episode now, so fast forward now to Buffy acting crazy.

"You're my Xander-shaped friend" 

First, lol to her singing macho man. This whole part is hilarious. Her messing up at cheer leading and screaming "I LOVE MY BUDS!" And then, poor Xander, actually thinking he has a chance at Buffy saying she's loves him or something. Shit gets intense with Buffy now being severely weakened now. This leads us to find out that Amy's mom used magic to switch bodies with her daughter. *dun dun DUN*

Is it just me, or is Amy’s mom not a very good cheerleader considering all of the trouble she went through trying to get on the team? This end is more funny than suspenseful. I enjoy Willow and Xander attempting to stop Amy's mom after she flees the game after she creepily stares at the other cheerleaders like a certain other character...

The danger ends with Buffy kicking down a mirror (why was that in the science classroom...?) ultimately causing Amy's mom to curse herself into somewhere where she won't be able to return. *suspense*

And this leads to my favorite line for the episode, with Xander coming in and thinking Amy's still evil. Giles and Buffy tell him everything is fine and he lets Amy go. Then Willow comes in with a bat and Xander tells her everything is fine.

Willow: Really?
Xander: Yeah, I took care of it.

I like how this episode ends with a cliffhanger type ending that never gets revisited. I remember first watching it and thinking something would happen and her mom would come back somehow. It would have been really lame if she had come back, I think, but I like that Joss ended it with us thinking it was a possibility.

Until next time, keep each other safe and keep faith.

-Sarah