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The unexpected parallels between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wellcome Collection

It’s over 20 years since ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ debuted on our television screens, and a sequel is now in the offing. Strangely, it seems that the progressive, poignant, hilarious and scary series has unexpected parallels with Wellcome Collection.

Russell Dornan

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Portrait of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Sarah Michelle Gellar as ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. © Mutant Enemy Productions / 20th Century Fox Television.

Are you sure this is a good idea?” Those are the first ever lines of dialogue from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, the greatest television show ever made. It’s also an accurate summary of my own internal dialogue when starting an article exploring Buffy’s themes through Wellcome Collection.

For anyone not blessed enough to know Buffy (we can’t all be perfect), here’s a wee summary: in every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the slayer.

Buffy Summers is also a 16-year-old high-school kid in California, at first seeming like the archetypal blonde girl we’re used to being a victim in slasher films. But this girl slashes back. Balancing school, relationships, friends and the apocalypse, the series sees Buffy go through the final years of high school, off to college, dropping out and trying to hold down a job, and finding and losing love several times.

All the while, she protects the (mostly unaware) public from the constant threat of demons, evil and the end of the world. And she’s not alone: her friends and frenemies support and hinder her in equal measure, their strength as a group often winning out over the monster of the week. Their victories are often thanks, in part, to the research they carry out together in the library.

GENERAL Scooby Gang Library
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

The Scooby Gang getting the low-down on the Big Bad.

“You kids really dig the library, don’t you?”

We’re lucky at Wellcome Collection to have a world-renowned library specialising in the study of medical history. We’re even luckier in the way that the subject is explored in our collections, from life to death and everything in between, including charms, magic, contagions, demons, folklore, sexuality, monsters and the apocalypse. The Scooby Gang (Buffy’s group of friends and helpers) would be right at home carrying out their research with us.

Unusually for a television show aimed at teenagers, characters in ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ spend a lot of their time poring over books and manuscripts, trying to find the answers they need to fight the current threat. I won’t go into any more detail about this here, because Mark A McCutcheon wrote how Buffy “routinely dramatises research in action as a public good”, and it’s worth a read on his blog.

Below are just some of the demons the Scooby Gang might research at Wellcome Collection.

Standout episodes of ‘Buffy’ include ‘The Body’ (exploring the initial shock, grief and brutal physicality of death after opening with Buffy’s mother’s sudden passing), ‘Once More With Feeling’ (the very clever musical episode where a demon compels Buffy and co. to sing their hearts out, revealing their most guarded secrets to one another in ways that are funny, heartbreaking and true to character) and ‘Restless’ (a low-key and surreal dream-sequence season finale exploring the lead characters’ psychologies, looking at their past, present and foreshadowing their futures).

OMWF 1
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

The conventions of a musical allowed the series to explore something different.

OMWF 2
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

Characters revealed their true feelings through song and dance.

Series creator Joss Whedon was known for pushing what a television show could be, regularly rethinking how a 45-minute episode could challenge its own set-up (and its writers, directors and actors), offering the audience treat after treat while transcending genre conventions.

Despite there being myriad episodes I could focus on, there was always one that stood out for me, not just for its own sake, but because its (Wellcome Collection-friendly) themes ripple through the wider ‘Buffy’ series in different ways.

‘Hush’

The tenth episode of the fourth series, ‘Hush’, takes place when Buffy is in college, and is widely recognised as a landmark episode of television (and is the only one in the series to be nominated for an Emmy Award for writing).

In ‘Hush’, a group of ghoulish fairytale villains called The Gentlemen arrive in Sunnydale. They steal everyone’s voices, leaving people unable to scream or call for help when The Gentlemen kill them. Buffy and friends have to solve the mystery of the deaths, as well as the town-wide silence, all the while communicating without speech.

After routinely receiving high praise for his dialogue, Joss Whedon wanted to challenge himself by writing an episode largely without any: in the 44-minute episode, only 17 minutes contain any dialogue.

HUSH gentlemen wide shot floating YT
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

The Gentlemen make their way through a silent Sunnydale.

“If the apocalypse comes, beep me”

The episode begins with a prophetic dream sequence, vaguely foreshadowing what is to come. This trope is employed many times in ‘Buffy’, as it happens to be one of the special abilities of the slayer. In fact, the very first episode starts (after the opening credits) with Buffy dreaming about things she’ll encounter later in that series. The series regularly features prophecies of great evil emerging and ending the world.

Prophecies crop up in Wellcome Collection, too: for example, the manuscripts of visions and prophecies that include the Sibyl’s prophecy. The Sibyl was a pagan prophetess, and various medieval works interpret the Sibyl’s dream, in which she foresees the downfall and apocalyptic end of the world. It doesn’t mention a slayer, though…

Illuminated Latin manuscript.

Visions and prophecies, including the Sybil’s prophecy.

An interesting side note: The Gentlemen (the villains of the piece – more on them later) came to Whedon in his own dream.

“To read makes our speaking English good”

The dream sequence begins with Buffy sitting in an auditorium at college. Buffy’s psychology professor, Maggie Walsh, introduces the topic of the lecture, which turns out to echo the overall theme of the episode: language.

Walsh says: “Talking about communication, talking about language. Not the same thing. It’s about the way a child can recognise and produce phonemes that don’t occur in its native language. It’s about inspiration: not the idea, but the moment before the idea; when it’s total, when it blossoms in your mind and connects to everything, before the coherent thought that gives it shape, that locks it in and cuts it off from the universal. When you can articulate it, it becomes smaller. It’s about thoughts and experiences that we don’t have a word for.”

Black and white diagram illustrating voice.

A diagram illustrating how the voice is produced.

Joss Whedon wrote the episode to show how people do or, rather, don’t communicate. The first third of the episode is full of dialogue; it’s almost frantic with characters miscommunicating or reflecting on their inability to speak to certain people (for example, Buffy and her current love interest, Riley). Each line of spoken dialogue enforces the idea that once talking stops, communication can really begin.

Take this exchange between Xander and Anya.

Xander can’t express himself to Anya or use words to tell her how he feels; meanwhile, all Anya wants to do is talk, but she says something inappropriate because, as an ex-demon, she’s “newly human and strangely literal”. Meanwhile, father figure Giles just wants everyone around him to shut up. Language gets in the way of communication because it limits people’s expression of the sometimes unspeakable ways they feel.

Joss Whedon explains further: “As soon as you say something, you’ve eliminated every other possibility of what you might be talking about; all of these [character moments] fed into the main theme, in a way that nothing I write will ever again. It is so inevitably coherent because it’s about, not writing, but about talking.”

By removing everyone’s ability to speak, the characters must find new ways to communicate with each other. This is particularly interesting to watch in a show famed for its snappy dialogue. Buffy’s group of friends are lost without their quick-witted repartee and idiosyncratic way of talking (Bonnie Kneen wrote about ‘Buffy Speak’ in detail for the Oxford Dictionary’s blog).

Gentlemen
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

The Gentlemen.

The revelation that they’ve lost their voice hits each person differently: some think they’re suddenly deaf, others blame members of the group. But everyone is initially horrified and confused, and this is even more pronounced in the wider town. Buffy and Willow walk through Sunnydale, passing crowds of scared people unsure of what’s going on. As communication becomes more difficult, the sense of community starts to erode: they walk past a closed bank but see people hurrying into a still open off-licence; religious fundamentalist groups gather in the streets.

The Gentlemen have stolen their voices, but they’ve also taken away much more: the silence isolates members of the community, rendering them even more ineffective in the face of this horror. The political overtones of miscommunication and the silencing of the people are clear. As Noel Murray wrote for A V Club: “…the way The Gentlemen do their business – by making sure no one can scream before they start – could be read as a metaphor for the way evil spreads. When dissent is stifled, or people fail to tell the truth, or when we’re just distracted by other concerns, things can get out of hand.”

So, who are The Gentlemen and what are they after?

In the show, these demons are said to come from fairy tales, roaming from town to town to steal the voices of their inhabitants in order to collect seven hearts, presumably to sustain themselves. They are tall, floating men dressed in smart black suits, with bald heads and unnerving grins.

Whedon based them on Victorian men, their politeness eerie and their grace terrifying. Their silver teeth were also inspired by the Victorian era, the industrial and medical advances of the time manifesting in these ghouls as a sort of ‘cavity-defeating’ breakthrough. The idea for them came from a nightmare Whedon had as a child; in fact, he specifically wanted them to be frightening to children (Whedon suggests the most scary thing to us as children is the fear of getting old).

Drawing of hands holding scalpels in different positions.

Various positions for holding a scalpel when performing an incision. All the harder to look at after watching ‘Hush’.

Accompanying The Gentlemen are footmen of sorts: bumbling, shuffling figures wearing straitjackets, who do the heavy lifting. They’re the ones who grab and restrain the victims, allowing The Gentlemen to claim their hearts. Some Buffy scholars suggest The Gentlemen and their minions represent class disparity: The Gentlemen in dapper Victorian suits move effortlessly to accomplish their skilled, technical task while the footmen do the hard labour.

The Gentlemen are masters of silent communication, employing graceful hand gestures and nuanced head nods. They understand each other clearly, and their rhythm and physicality are both exquisite and dreadful to witness. This is especially true in the way they collect hearts.

I’m sure having your heart cut out of your body while you’re conscious and incapacitated will chime with the fear many of us have of not being fully under anaesthetic (or waking up) during an operation. But the addition of being wide awake and unable to scream, staring at their maniacal grins as they lower the glinting scalpel towards you just adds to the terror.

The Gentlemen display uncanny grace, and their hands move so precisely, almost daintily. (A word to the wise: although there’s no gore or graphic scenes, there is mild peril and extreme spookiness in the clip featured here.)

The Gentleman, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

The only thing that can harm The Gentlemen is a human voice, specifically a scream. Once people’s voices have been returned, Buffy lets out an almighty and sustained shriek, resulting in The Gentlemen’s heads exploding violently. The voice, used in such a primal way and without language, saves the day. This resolution is more similar to traditional or folkloric fairy tales than is often used in Buffy. The majority of demons across the series are defeated through physical means, or magic.

“Bunch of wanna-blessed-bes”

Willow bad
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

Willow is consumed by dark magic.

Although Willow has been exploring and using magic since the end of season two, by the time ‘Hush’ takes place, she has an increased hunger for it. She seeks out a Wiccan group on campus, hoping to meet other witches and flex her growing power.

The use of magic is a stand-in for a variety of themes throughout the series, such as love, power, relationships and addiction. There’s no moral judgement offered by the show regarding magic or witchcraft generally, but the results of its uses are often tied to the intention of the user. Willow is frustrated in ‘Hush’ because the Wiccan group is more interested in bake sales than exploring true magic. But finding the group is important for her character nonetheless, because it is here she meets Tara.

When in trouble later in the episode, Tara seeks out Willow. Escaping The Gentlemen, they end up in a dead-end room and try to push the vending machine against the door, but can’t shift it. Willow attempts to move it with magic, but only manages to make it wobble. Tara tentatively touches Willow’s hand with hers, slowly locks fingers and with a sharp turn of their heads, they launch the vending machine against the door.

Willow and Tara, ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’.

Whedon talks about his vision for this moment: “…we wanted this to be a moment that was very physical and very empowering and very beautiful between the two of them; it’s a very empowering statement about love. Two people together can accomplish more than when they’re alone. A great deal more… It really is one of the most romantic images we’ve put on film.”

Tara and Willow embrace
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

Willow and Tara kiss.

It marks an important milestone: this is the beginning of one of the most genuinely realised same-sex relationships on television. And this relationship is inextricably linked to Willow’s magical abilities from the first moment.

In earlier seasons, when Willow is in (unrequited) love with Xander, she is powerless. Her later relationship with Oz brings her out of herself a lot and her powers start to manifest, but with many false starts. It’s only when she meets Tara that her full capabilities are hinted at, and it’s Tara (or rather, the tragic things that happen to her) that inspire Willow’s full power to be realised, terrifyingly, in later seasons.

Black and white etching showing a witch preparing something in a cauldron, surrounded by strange looking creatures.

A witch at her cauldron surrounded by beasts.

This burgeoning of her powers can be seen in relation to her sexual awakening. Both magic and sexuality are empowering for Willow. The focus is always on Willow and Tara’s relationship, as opposed to them coming out; watching two people find each other, fall in love and empower each other after years of never fully feeling ‘themselves’.

Despite other (straight) characters being much more physical with each other on the show, Willow and Tara’s magical connection was sometimes used as a proxy for their physical one, since there was only so much the network was be able to show of the latter. But still, as someone unsure of my own sexuality growing up, seeing strong, loving, well-rounded characters whose alternative sexuality is bound to magic (making them the most powerful individuals as a result!) was inspiring to 15-year-old me.

“The hardest thing in this world… is to live in it”

The episode ends shortly after Buffy saves the day, restoring everyone’s voices. Finally able to speak to each other, she and Riley sit in her dorm room and agree that they need to talk. They sit in silence. A bit too much time passes to be comfortable and… the credits roll.

Buffy
‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras, Writer Joss Whedon. © Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997-2003.

“What would Buffy do?”

So what have we learned from Buffy and the amazing ‘Hush’ episode? Speak to each other, but don’t just talk: communicate. In the face of evil, don’t let silence or miscommunication (or alternative facts) get in the way of action. Always ask yourself, “What would Buffy do?”

And finally, let’s not forget how librarians, and their charges, are often our last line of cultural defence.

Unless otherwise stated, quotes, clips and giffs are from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and its DVD extras (Writer Joss Whedon; Warner Brothers / Paramount, 1997–2003).

About the contributors

Russell Dornan