Notes on Buffy 3.16: Doppelgangland

[2maggie2]

Standard disclaimer: I'll often speak of foreshadowing, but that doesn't mean I'm at all committing to the idea that there was some fixed design from the word go -- it's a short hand for talking about the resonances that end up in the text as it unspools.

Standard spoiler warning: The notes are written for folks who have seen all of BtVS and AtS.

Comments

[local_max]

She's definitely freaked by the spell and what it opens up. And she's freaked by her dark side later on. I didn't draw the link explicitly, but I think that Willow's "Ooh, is it dangerous?" "Well, can we pretend it is?" is some in-episode setup for her playing at being Vamp!Willow later in the episode. They're for very different reasons, and Willow's attitude about both is different, but when she wants to do the dangerous spell, (this time) Willow is still basically good-girl Willow pretending to do dangerous, and not actually doing so. But as you point out -- eventually she will start really doing dangerous spells, and start getting more and more comfortable with them.

In the next season, we'll have Willow engaging in dangerous magic and getting lectures from Giles about responsible magic use, much like the lecture she gave to Anya.

Definitely. Incidentally, one of the things I want to track is exactly how hard Giles tries with Willow. My feeling is that he makes some noise about her doing dangerous magic, but doesn't really follow through much -- which to a degree is because she's not his actual responsibility.

Excellent notes! You've stirred thinky-thoughts. :)

Thanks! :)