Meta: BtVS 1.4 - Teacher's Pet

[seraphcelene]

x-posted at fantas_magoria

As much as Teacher’s Pet is Xander’s episode in the same way that I Robot, You Jane will be Willow’s, it goes a long way in setting up the rules that will become de rigueur for the Buffyverse and that will be refracted and reflected in the seasons to come. Despite the horribly cheesy Monster of the Week, a format that thankfully gave way to more in-depth and well-rounded arcs stretching very obviously (and not as subtly as we see here) across seasons.



That first and last conversation with Dr. Gregory says a lot. Not only does it give us the awesome Destructo Girl reference (a gem among many in this episode) but it serves to introduce two key themes that this episode establishes as rules of the Buffyverse.

You have a first-rate mind and you can think on your feet. Imagine what you could accomplish if you actually did … the homework thing

The homework thing, a theme of discipline, obedience and Buffy’s failure/refusal to abide by the Watcher rules and tow the line. Giles laments Buffy’s chaotic, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants approach to slaying through much of the series, but we come to realize, even if it takes him a while, that Buffy’s irreverent slayer style is her greatest asset. Dr. Gregory recognizes in her now, what Giles will come to appreciate later, her quick wit, quick mind and determination, all those things that mark the Buffybot for a fraud in Bargaining, Part I.

Then there’s that reference to “that permanent record.” As much as Dr. Gregory is, again, referencing Buffy’s normal, academic career it can also apply, in retrospect, to what we will later discover by the end of Chosen. Flying in the face of all the historical records and doctrines, assumptions and expectations of slayerhood, Buffy manages to outlast and out-do every slayer ever to become a living legend. Talk about making them eat a permanent record, Buffy crams it fist first down their throats.

In retrospect that’s all true and with many bumps along the way. In The Witch, Buffy’s attempt at regaining a sense of herself (reclaiming the life she’s lost) is enacted through her desire to join the cheerleading squad. Of course, that goes afoul in a way that can only happen on the Hellmouth and Buffy ends up battling a body stealing witch who’s confiscated her own daughter’s body. The Witch continued the thread of Buffy’s inescapable destiny as it was presented in Welcome to the Hellmouth and The Harvest. Just as bad things happen to good people, supernatural wackiness happens to Buffy. She attracts it. With Teacher’s Pet there is a shift as we are confronted with the repercussive nature of life on the Hellmouth and Buffy’s presence in it. Those who seek to enter or alter Buffy’s world meet with an untimely end. Dr. Gregory’s insistence on seeing Buffy as a regular student, of not allowing her to fade into the background as slayers are encouraged to do seems to indicate that his demise is imminent. Attempts to provide Buffy with a life outside of slaying ultimately fail. Even the relationship that exists between the Scoobies, Giles and Buffy is predicated on her capacity as the slayer. They meet initially and subsequently as it is related to supernatural events in Sunnydale and our view of their world continually rotates around and is intersected by the nature of life on the Hellmouth. Dr. Gregory, and his encouragement of Buffy's non-slayer persona, doesn’t really have a place in Sunnydale (not unlike Riley, Joyce, and Tara later in the series).

So, rule number one is: No normal for you, Buffy Summers. It’s a truth that we are repeatedly reminded of throughout the course of the series as she continually seeks to carve out an identity independent of slaying. As we learn in Anne, that doesn’t really seem to be possible.

Rule numero 2 is almost a no-brainer. It’s so intrinsic to the Buffyverse that it’s like air: Sex is bad!! Teacher’s Pet beats us over the head with it and we carry it through every last episode of the series and into the comic book. In the Buffyverse, sex consumes. Incredibly attractive, it’s also deadly. We can lose our souls, hearts, minds and lives to it. Episodes from Innocence to Where the Wild Things Are, even jumping over into the Angelverse and doomed sex between Cordelia and Connor, Angel and Darla … Sex is Bad!!

There are, of course, other cosmetic sorts of details introduced in Teacher’s Pet and that will be carried into the series as a whole:

 Xander’s dude in distress role, always in need of rescuing
 Xander’s attraction to strong, deadly, exotic women (Buffy, Anya, Faith, Inca Mummy Girl, Ashanti)
 Later we get a much more entertaining and elegant version of Xander’s conquering hero fantasy in Superstar”
 There’s also Joss’s predilection for beautiful villainesses (Darla, Dru, Glory, dark!Willow, Faith, Jasmine, Lilah)

For only the fourth episode in the series there’s quite a lot packed in. It’s amazing and absolutely awesome for me to go back and re-watch season one and see how the groundwork was laid for the seasons to come even though a show such as BtVS should have had next to no shot at surviving the first season. If it had debuted now, in today’s climate, where industry demands immediate success, Teacher’s Pet very likely would have been it’s last episode and that would have been a shame indeed because even though it doesn’t exactly shine the brightest among the season one eps, it definitely got better and the dialogue sparkled brightly enough:

Xander: Oh, right! Give her your jacket. It's a balmy night, no one needs to be trading clothing out there!

Giles: That's all he said? Fork Guy?
Buffy: That's all Cryptic Guy said: Fork Guy.
Giles: I think there are too many 'guys' in your life.

Giles: God, every day here is the same.
Buffy: Bright, sunny, beautiful, how ever can we escape this torment?
Giles: Really.

Xander: It's funny how the Earth never opens up and swallows you when you want it to.

Xander: Hey, those that can, do. Those that can't laugh at those who... can do.

Buffy: Yes, I lied, I'm a bad person, let's move on.

Mr. Flutie: We all need help with our feelings. Otherwise we bottle them up, and before you know it, powerful laxatives are involved. I really believe if we all reach out to one another we can beat this thing. I'm always here if you need a hug, but not a real hug! Because there's no touching, this school is sensitive to wrong touching.

Cordelia: I don't know what to say, it was really, I mean, one minute you're in your normal life, and then who's in the fridge? It really gets to you, a thing like that. It was... let's just say I haven't been able to eat a thing since yesterday. I think I lost, like, seven and a half ounces? Way swifter than that so-called diet that quack put me on. Oh, I'm not saying that we should kill a teacher every day just so I can lose weight, I'm just saying when tragedy strikes, we have to look on the bright side. You know?

Comments

[lynnenne]

Talk about making them eat a permanent record, Buffy crams it fist first down their throats.

Oh, neat observation! I never would have seen that parallel, but it totally fits.

[seraphcelene]

I'm beginning to see all sorts of things as I re-watch the series. It's really crazy to me as I begin to recognize earlier versions of later themes, scenes and canonical truisms. On re-watch that scene with Dr. Gregory reminded me so much of the scene in Checkpoint where she gives the visiting Watchers the business. I don't know why when it's probably more closely related to her quitting the Council in Graduation or maybe their all a series of events leading to some place I haven't figured out yet.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

You have some great observations. It never occurred to me that those on the more normal are doomed in Buffy's world but it's true.

[seraphcelene]

Thanks! I had examples noted out when I was thinking about this, but I wrote it really quickly in the 11th hour while I was at work trying to make it before the Flash Challenge went up. I wanted to note the exceptions as Angel and Oz who both leave for their own reasons and are not forced out. Everyone is excised from the text. Even the Troika in S6 (lame as they were) reads that way to me. Andrew, of course, is brought into the group which I suppose we could read as part of his supernatural heritage (he is after all Tucker's brother), but the other two are astonishingly normal. Jonathan gets good with the mojo, but if we learned nothing from Earshot, I think, it's that Jonathan is average. Warren, for all that he is corrupted, too, is normal. He goes to great lengths to try and prove that he is anything but ... to no real avail as the true villian for the season turns out to be Willow.

[viciouswishes.livejournal.com]

How would you say Xander has translated to the comics as the dude in distress? From what I've read in reviews/summaries, Xander is even more Joss Sue than normal with being in charge of Slayer ops.

[seraphcelene]

Unfortunately, I don't read the comics. I've been paying cursory attention to them, reading reviews here and summaries there to keep a general idea of what's going on. But, I'm not surprised with what you've mentioned. Over the course of the TV series, we did get to see Xander become more competent and actually grow-up. Of all characters other than Tara he read the most adult by the show's close. I think that Xander is totally Joss Sue and I love that phrase. Although things happen to him, nothing really happens to him. Even Joss himself said that he'd never kill off Xander. In fact, I remember reading that initially Joss wanted Glory to be in Xander and not Ben. I don't remember why that never happened but that storyline got re-written into Angel with the Jasmine/Cordelia/Connor fiasco and of course they then killed off Cordelia. So, I guess that wouldn't work.

I'd be very interested to hear your take on Xander's development post S7. Fill me in!!