Characterization In The Buffyverse — ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Season 5, Episode 2

This is part of a bi-weekly series concerning the characterization of Buffyverse characters. The first installment in this series can be found here. Arguably the best place to begin reading this series is at the beginning, but that is up to each reader. As a reminder this column will cover major and some minor characters from the shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) and Angel (1999-2004). Other Buffyverse media, such as the graphic novel Spike: Into The Light (2014) are not pertinent to this series. Also there will be no referencing real world events that have a direct relation to either show in this bi-weekly series.

This week: Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg) faces off with Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab). Also, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) looks into buying some property.

(Warning of spoilers from this point on!)

Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) now has a sibling, which is a relationship not available in prior seasons. It is also worth mentioning that Buffy makes a comment on finding “George Clooney” to be attractive. This is an example of an argument one can make about her issues with her father figures and dating older guys. Yes, she does not feel attraction to her father figures, but she does prefer men who are older (centuries old, even) when it comes to dating. Thus, one can argue that it is weird that she finds a celebrity old enough to be her father to be lust-worthy. Also, she is still having trouble balancing her personal life with school and slaying as her interactions with Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland), Dawn, Riley Finn (Marc Blucas), and Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) show. Lastly, the tense feeling Buffy is experiencing may be her unconsciously sensing traces of the spell that makes The Key her sister.

Tara Maclay (Amber Benson) does not have the same level of interest in cars — specifically Giles’s new wheels — as Willow apparently has. Meanwhile, her feeling like an outsider is logical since Tara is still relatively new to the group, as is her belief she is a demon (Season 5, Episode 6, “Family”).

Willow is still a proponent of responsibility at this point. Her conversation about work ethic with Buffy makes this clear. Unfortunately, this aspect of her personality will erode as this season continues and will go completely out the figurative window in season six. Moreover, the side of her personality that insists on everything going her way is on display during the latter part of this chat. Fortunately this discussion does not result in a spell like the one where Giles went blind (Season 4, Episode 9, “Something Blue”).

Anya (Emma Caulfield Ford) talks down to Dawn. It is a little weird when one considers that Dawn, or anyone else, would probably say something about this treatment. She also develops a severe love of money after playing board games in this episode. Although the fact she wins at one of the games without knowing the rules suggests she either has insane levels of luck or experience from similar games. Finally, her rushing out to bring Dawn back into the house is a side of Anya that will eventually lead to her death since it goes against her selfish nature (Season 7, Episode 2, “Chosen”).

Riley is probably insincere when complimenting Joyce’s outfit. His attempt at a joke regarding mothers and sleeping with their offspring is slightly disturbing due to his using the verb “violate” when doing so.

Giles is in the midst of a midlife crisis as his pride in his new car shows — not to mention the reasoning he gives for buying it clearly tells viewers this. When it comes to possible college courses for Buffy, he apparently views drama classes as a waste of time. Giles seemingly detests the soap opera Passions (a real daytime soap which ran from 1999-2008) as his final lines in this episode suggest. One last development in this episode: he becomes the new owner of Sunnydale’s magic store.

Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) is a complete imbecile when it comes to confronting Harmony and her gang. First, he does not use any sort of strategy from years of helping to fight monsters or his time under the costume spell (Season 2, Episode 6, “Halloween”). One potential strategy: searching Buffy’s house for her weapons before confronting them. Another option is raiding Joyce’s liquor to create Molotov cocktails, which would at least scare them. They could even call for help or break things for stakes. Instead, Harmony gets an invite that Xander is partially at fault for, but he passes the blame onto Dawn.

Dawn’s diary entry monologue contrasts with her actual actions. An example of this: Dawn views her sister as always having things work out right, and yet Dawn and Joyce take all the milk at breakfast. This disparity between how Dawn views things and what she does makes her appear to be a very selfish person. There is also the factor of how she seemingly shifts between acting like a typical teenager to a child. One can see this with her not understanding about Willow and Tara dating and her mom’s perceptible homophobia. Although the shifting is not too obvious in this episode, it does occur throughout her time on the show.

Spike’s (James Marsters) existence in this episode serves only to pad out the run time, mainly by giving Harmony another plan to work with. His decision not to dust Harmony and her minions also makes no sense considering how little care he displayed for her in the past (Season 4, Episode 3, “The Harsh Light Of Day”).

Joyce is apparently homophobic. Evidence of this comes about in part of Dawn’s monologue. Although, Joyce may just be misunderstanding Dawn’s question concerning learning magic in a way where she thinks her underage daughter wants a threesome with two adults. Thus, Joyce may not actually be homophobic, but just upset cause she thinks Dawn is asking something inappropriate. In that case, it is understandable for Joyce to be upset. Other than that, there is not much of relevance to Joyce this episode.

Harmony Kendall deludes herself into thinking she is Buffy’s nemesis, but there is nothing of substance that is new to her characterization.

Crazy Guy #1 (Bob Morrisey) appears in the episode to scare Dawn and give verbal hints to viewers. He disappears extremely abruptly, and is mentally ill in a stereotypical manner.

Mort (Brian Turk), Brad (Chaney Kley Minnis), Peaches (Faith S. Abrahams), and Cyrus (Tom Lenk) are all fairly generic vampires. Yes, they each exhibit some personality traits, but these only go so far as to differentiate them.

This episode tries for a view of Buffy and Dawn’s relationship as siblings to demonstrate that they are similar. Rather than this happening, we get an unequal comparison of the two mainly due to the weak plotting, and the lazy attempt to insert Dawn into the narrative.