4/4: Fear Itself

[William the Bloody]

Written by David Fury
Directed by Tucker Gates
Air date: 10/26/99

A Halloween party at a campus frat house takesa frightening turn with the sudden appearance of blood-sucking bats, zombies, and a demon that plays on everyone's innermost fears.

[beccaelizabeth]

I love 'Fear Itself'
Giles with a chainsaw!
and the ending with chocolate (which I'm currently finding so appropriate. but I tell myself making myself sick on chocolate birthday cake is a whole different thing than just making myself sick on chocolate)

Its a wonderful way to present everyones fears, make them all solid and visible. Worst part is by the end of the season all those fears turn out to be entirely reasonable - Oz is changing when there isn't a moon, Willow's magic went out of control, everyone left Buffy (albeit briefly) and everyone (except Anya) ignored Xander a lot. Most of those stayed persistent problems through to the end of the show. Making this episode totally key.

I miss Oz. Story let him wander off to be miserable and afraid all alone. So sad!



but, Giles with a chainsaw


Every time I watch it though I get more annoyed with Buffy that first time she goes to visit him. I mean Giles is dressed up with candy and having fun... ah, flashback moment, yes Giles and the fun candy is a bad combination. But I was just thinking, Giles steps out of his usual role, tries the not-you-is-you of Halloween on for size, and Buffy just stares at him like he is the freak and tells him to take his hat off. Because Giles is the Grown Up and has to stay the Grown Up. Buffy really needed to get over that, and I don't reckon she did.

Giles takes off the costume and gets out the chainsaw. And is so obviously having fun with it. ;D
Make a door.


Buffy's approach to 'breaking' the spell - what does that say about Fear, that thumping it summons the demon? What was the actual way to make the demon go away? I mean if breaking the symbol releases the fear demon then that must be what the fear demon is trying to get them to do. So what would the counter be?


also of note, Giles translates the Gaelic without reference to books.
wonder which languages he knows?
Latin, sumerian, english, gaelic, had something memorised in I think german in Gingerbread, mentioned Aramaic in one of the eps he was pretending to do a spell about Acathla.
In 'Nightmares' Giles says he can read five languages. Do you reckon he is only counting the ones he is fluent in? I think we've seen more than that.


I still love this episode. Oz=God (opposite/backwards of dog), Willow the close personal friend of God, and the chainsaw. All of it cool.

[Karen]

Fear Itself is such a good episode. This morning, it seemed that FX ran full scenes it used to cut. Like the one where the dead people came through the floor, grabbing at Buffy. Or else, I just don't remember that one being so long. I'll have to watch the DVD and see what else I missed.

It struck me, also, that it is a bit like a group "Normal Again".

And Anya wears her fear so that everyone can see it, while Buffy hides hers under a hood.

And what is it about Little Red Riding Hood that Buffy finds so fearful? Being a 'bad girl' and getting eatin' up by the big bad wolf? Residue for the Parker fiasco? Something a bit deeper?

"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"

"All the better to eat you up with."

And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.

Moral: Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.

[Spaced Out Looney]

karen said:

Fear Itself is such a good episode. This morning, it seemed that FX ran full scenes it used to cut. Like the one where the dead people came through the floor, grabbing at Buffy. Or else, I just don't remember that one being so long. I'll have to watch the DVD and see what else I missed.

It struck me, also, that it is a bit like a group "Normal Again".

And Anya wears her fear so that everyone can see it, while Buffy hides hers under a hood.

And what is it about Little Red Riding Hood that Buffy finds so fearful? Being a 'bad girl' and getting eatin' up by the big bad wolf? Residue for the Parker fiasco? Something a bit deeper?

"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"

"All the better to eat you up with."

And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.

Moral: Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.

I never thought that Buffy's costume was supposed to represent her fears. What suggests to you that that's the case?

[Karen]

ehills said:

karen said:

Fear Itself is such a good episode. This morning, it seemed that FX ran full scenes it used to cut. Like the one where the dead people came through the floor, grabbing at Buffy. Or else, I just don't remember that one being so long. I'll have to watch the DVD and see what else I missed.

It struck me, also, that it is a bit like a group "Normal Again".

And Anya wears her fear so that everyone can see it, while Buffy hides hers under a hood.

And what is it about Little Red Riding Hood that Buffy finds so fearful? Being a 'bad girl' and getting eatin' up by the big bad wolf? Residue for the Parker fiasco? Something a bit deeper?

"Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!"

"All the better to eat you up with."

And, saying these words, this wicked wolf fell upon Little Red Riding Hood, and ate her all up.

Moral: Children, especially attractive, well bred young ladies, should never talk to strangers, for if they should do so, they may well provide dinner for a wolf. I say "wolf," but there are various kinds of wolves. There are also those who are charming, quiet, polite, unassuming, complacent, and sweet, who pursue young women at home and in the streets. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all.

I never thought that Buffy's costume was supposed to represent her fears. What suggests to you that that's the case?

Mainly because Anya's costume suggests, or actually, screams, hers.

Not sure if it's a good parallel or not.

[Spaced Out Looney]

karen said:

ehills said:

I never thought that Buffy's costume was supposed to represent her fears. What suggests to you that that's the case?

Mainly because Anya's costume suggests, or actually, screams, hers.

Not sure if it's a good parallel or not.

Anya took Xander's advice to wear something scary.

Halloween costumes can be something scary, but they can also be pretty much anything under the sun.

The costumes don't seem to have any overt significance, like they did in the episode Halloween, but, with pondering, Buffy's costume suggests innocence.

The costumes could again be an opposite of the wearer, in the tradition of "come as you aren't night."

Oz dresses as God, but he's pretty much the most unassuming Scooby of all.

Xander dresses as Bond, but he's anything but suave.

Willow dresses as Joan of Arc, but she's anything but a martyr? (I'm not sure if that makes sense) Maybe it's that Willow would not be one, at this point, to follow the will of God, in the sense of messing with the natural order of things.


On the other hand, they may not mean anything beyond the Scoobies personalities and what they might pick as costumes.

[Onjel]

karen said:

ehills said:

I never thought that Buffy's costume was supposed to represent her fears. What suggests to you that that's the case?

Mainly because Anya's costume suggests, or actually, screams, hers.

Not sure if it's a good parallel or not.

Parker was a classic wolf and remember, this follows right on the heels of Parker's use and discard campaign that he so successfully completed with Buffy. Also? The Initiative can be seen as the Big Bad Wolf of the season. Spike? Definitely wolfish.

I think Buffy's costume was some classic foreshadowing, myself.

[KMInfinity]

More symbolism about Buffy's costume~?~

-The costume was one she wore when she was 12ish. Joyce is altering it to fit 19 yr old Buffy...
-Joyce comments that her dad loved taking her trick-or-treating...

The demon turned out to be less-than-fearsome - once the gang faced it together. Definite long term thematic connections.

I loved the blend of humor/scary in this one. This is the episode where Anya really made an impact on me.

[jeff]

I like this episode. It really shows where if your alone, sometimes your fears can get the best of you, but if you tackle your fears head on with your friends they can be overcome.

Giles was great in his costume. At this point I was beginning to wander what they were going to do with his character. I was getting worried about he being a 3 minute filler character. I am glad they got him more involved.

ROFL. At Oz being God.

Anya, this is where I really started loving her character.

Will and Buffy's argument wa great. "Your basic spells are only 50/50" Willow "Well, so is your face." LOL

[jeff]

Oz's fear is wolfing out uncontrollably. So he runs off to face his fear alone. Trying to control his inner wolf. Which he actually does later on, he leaves to find his inner peace and learns to control his animalistic nature.

One of Willow's fear was losing control of her magic and it consumed her when she conjured the guiding spell. Low and behold later on she loses control of her magic and turns dark.

Buffy's fear is losing her heart to someone, which she does later on this season with Riley, and low and behold he leaves.

Xander's fear is not being able to be seen or heard. Which I find interesting since in season 7 he is considered the guy who sees everything by Caleb. Then he loses his sight in one eye.

So in a weird way all their fears came true, and they all faced them in real life and pulled through them.

Interesting huh.

[Spaced Out Looney]

onjel said:

karen said:

Mainly because Anya's costume suggests, or actually, screams, hers.

Not sure if it's a good parallel or not.

Parker was a classic wolf and remember, this follows right on the heels of Parker's use and discard campaign that he so successfully completed with Buffy. Also? The Initiative can be seen as the Big Bad Wolf of the season. Spike? Definitely wolfish.

I think Buffy's costume was some classic foreshadowing, myself.

This essay gave me a clue what Buffy's costume might have been about, specifically:

Once Upon a Time…

In the first ever slasher film the blonde went into the shower but Whedon’s alley feels more appropriate somehow. That sense of deja vu probably reflects the genre’s connections with older folk literature and mythologies. When the blonde wore a red cape and flirted with the wolf her alley was a path through the dark, dark woods to grandma’s house. Little Red Riding Hood in the Perrault version of the fairy tale is every inch the NC-17 slasher victim, gorily punished for straying from the paths of wisdom and virtue – the handsome man coming to save her is a later PG addition.[2]

The BtVS S3 episode Helpless rejects both PG and NC-17 adaptations cleaving closer to earlier folk tales, in which the girl herself defeats the wolf and through cunning rather than force. Buffy’s handsome (if older) man arrives too late. A second overtly Red Riding Hood referencing episode Fear Itself is more post modern in approach. The red cape is a costume and the wolf eventually exposed as a wee little puppet demon to be stamped on and ridiculed. Ridicule, let it never be forgotten, is a potent weapon in the hands of a Slayer. Where Perrault’s story and its slasher descendants conspire to flatter the masculine, BtVS invariably deflates the more tumescent attributes of its Big Bads. Buffy mocks the Master’s scrotum-like wrinklies (Prophecy Girl), blows “Dick” to mayor smithereens (Graduation Day Part II) and ends by dispatching Caleb through possibly the most botched vasectomy in the history of surgery (Chosen).



I had forgotten about the Little Red Riding Hood references in Helpless. Also, wolf-->dog, ref. vampire=dog references throughout the show. So that fits too.

In one way, the costumes could be the opposites again. Buffy's not one to fall for the Big Bad Wolf/vampire like Little Red Riding Hood, Xander's not suave like Bond, Willow's not a martyr like Joan of Arc, Oz is not god-like... and Anya's not a fluffy bunny and Giles isn't a stereotypical Mexican? Maybe not those last too; maybe they got their costumes at the same place Cordy did.


On the other hand the Little Red Riding Hood costume could be about Buffy's fear that the Big Bad Wolf/vampire will get her in the end, as discussed in Fool For Love.