In The Buff...part two!

[Rayne]

Okay, Joan the Vampire Slayer brought an old thread to my attention that I thought would be fun to bring back...

What Buffy episode do you most relate to on a personal level? Which one made you go Hmmm...that really resonates...and please feel free to explain. I want to know where everyone is coming from.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Yippee! I'm glad I was responsible for this thread has been revived 🙂

I choose Tabula Rasa because my life often seems like a ironic TV show. I often meet or pass by people on the street that look eerily familiar even though I'm sure I've never been introduced to them before. Also, I can relate to Spike in the sense that I always owe people money 😉

A runner-up for me would be Shadow. I can identify with how Buffy felt when her mother was diagnosed with the brain tumor. In fact, when I was twelve, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Since they caught it really early, they were able to remove the lump and she was completely fine (thank god) but I remember how terrifed my sister and I were, watching her wheeled into the operating room for her operation.

 

[Skytteflickan88]

Earshot, I guess. I was bullied as a kid.

There's so many episodes/scenes that deals with bullying/depression/the-outsider-feeling that I can relate too, but something specific about Earshot is that in it, Buffy tells Jonathan that he isn't ignored/bullied because people decide they don't care(or something to that effect). It's just that they're busy with their own problems.

I had realized this before I saw the episode, but it was still nice to have it confirmed by my favorite show that my former thoughts (bullies-are-evil-teachers-that-don't-listen-are-mean) were wrong.

 

[LittleMissLikesToFight]

The Body. Or at least it does now. I've said this on the boards before, in discussion of the episode... but my mom passed away a little over two years ago. When i finally garnered the emotional willpower to watch said episode after this happened, I realized how brilliantly whedon & co. portrayed every emotion, ever nuance, of what it feels like. It's so real and so in your face, but thats what death is. You lose your mom and you lose your whole world... and i think the SMG was amazing at showing the pain and confusion of the situation.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

The Body. Or at least it does now. I've said this on the boards before, in discussion of the episode... but my mom passed away a little over two years ago. When i finally garnered the emotional willpower to watch said episode after this happened, I realized how brilliantly whedon & co. portrayed every emotion, ever nuance, of what it feels like. It's so real and so in your face, but thats what death is. You lose your mom and you lose your whole world... and i think the SMG was amazing at showing the pain and confusion of the situation.

Yeah, when you watch the Body after living it...it's a very different experience. You can really tell that the people who made it have been there.

 

[Rayne]

So Lindsey, I take it The Body is your answer as well?

I agree that episode was done truly well. I'm amazed at every detail and every shot and how it speaks for an experience that, for so many, is simply undefinable. I'm so sorry to those of you that can relate so profoundly with it.

 

[hazzard]

earshot--i can definitely relate to jonathan and i thought that buffy's speech to him was brilliant.

family--my ex-girlfriend's family didn't accept me and i've just had trouble with my parents and my sexuality--this episode was so sweet and powerful in its message of what makes a family, what really matters.

the freshman--my first year of college was rough

life serial, older and far away--pains of growing up, both from buffy and dawn

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

So Lindsey, I take it The Body is your answer as well?

I agree that episode was done truly well. I'm amazed at every detail and every shot and how it speaks for an experience that, for so many, is simply undefinable. I'm so sorry to those of you that can relate so profoundly with it.

Yeah, I think it would have to be. I mean, you can say an episode relates to you, but it's usually a single aspect of the ep that does. A theme, or an event, or some kind of character growth. It's rare (in any show) that a fully formed episode will come along and hold that feeling from start to finish. Especially in a show like Buffy, where the demons are physical and the problems metaphorical most of the time. It's so difficult to make the link as strong in that way. The Body managed it - even with Anya's speech as an ex-demon and the brutal fight with the vampire at the end.

And of course, it's the ultimate irony that despite the fact that the episode speaks to me on such a level that it's by far one my highest rated hours of television ever, I also wish it wasn't.

 

[InsaneMystic]

Wrecked and Grave. I think the addiction plotline was handled excellently, and first time around, Wrecked hit home so much for me that I stopped watching Buffy for a couple of weeks because I couldn't handle it.

 

[Joyce Summers]

Though many have said The Body, the one that I related to the most was Forever. I haven't lost my Mom (thank god) but just over eight years ago I did loose my Grandmother who in place of my Dad had been a second Mom so when she went it felt terribly like loosing a parent. And Forever was just a very eerie mirror image of the period directly after her death- the sorting of affairs, the focusing on the funeral just to get you through the days. And Buffy's feeling of not knowing what the day after the funeral would bring since that's the day life goes on....really resonated with me. I remember feeling very lost, confused- and along with my Mother, us two being the only ones in the family keeping it together for everyone else, plus being under 20 at the time myself made it all the harder I guess. I just feel that episode really caught it, perhaps even more so than The Body (for me personally that is).
Buffy's opening the door at the end to nothing at the end was particularly poignent as for weeks after my Grandmother's death I kept expecting her to walk into the room or come around for dinner or answer the phone when I dialled the house number, but there is no one there.

And to escape this bumming out deep talk session I am also going to say The Freshman. Coz MAN was I lost on my first day of college. I was the girl stood on my own in a huge crowd with several leaflets for free pizza and money off alcoholic beverages piled atop my orientation itinerary folder. My first week, in all honesty, sucked. And I very much felt for the buffster.

 

[atticus]

For me it's The Body, it was a perfect representation of Loss, and how every one differs in how they react to it. I have lived it, and can see a member of my family in all the characters.
Also The Weight Of The World. Buffy's thought that maybe things would be easier if it was just over. I know I thought that and it does leave you with tremendous guilt and the feeling that you may have caused a bad outcome, just by letting yourself think it, even for a second. It does shut you down, but you can't be strong 24/7. Sometimes you let those thoughts in, but it doesn't mean you want it. It's just a thought.

 

[wickedtiger86]

For me, it's "Ted"

My mom dated this crazy horrible guy right after her mom died. For this, she now claims temporary insanity. 🙂

He'd do some wack stuff. I got grounded one time for using the bathroom at three in the morning because I was supposed to be in bed. He listened in on all my phone conversations and decided who I could be friends with based on that. Totally crazy stuff. *shakes head*

So yeah, that episode . . . especially because Joyce didn't believe Buffy for a long time about it. My mom was in complete denial. But she figured it out and sure he wasn't actually a robot but . . . close enough. An angry robot . . . with a tattoo of Popeye on his stomach . . .