Life Imitates Buffy

In the third episode of the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series named "The Witch" the gang goes up against the magical cheerleader, Amy. In the end it is discovered that it is in fact Amy's mom they are dealing with, obsessed housewife and single mother (just one more statistic for Ann Coulter's latest arguments) who used her mystical powers to possess her daughter and relive her glory days as a high school cheerleader. Of course, her daughter's body is apparently clumsier than hers and she continues using witchcraft to disfigure senior cheerleaders and gain a spot on the team. This is one of the earliest episodes in which the long running metaphor of growing up as the end of the world is cleverly explored, and Joss himself has admitted that he first discovered what he could do with the show after making "The Witch."

In Wisconsin, near Green Bay, Wendy Brown stole her daughter's identity and returned to high school, attending a pool party, a class, and cheerleading tryouts. She was only caught when her absences from homeroom were tracked down and she was found in a jail cell, on unrelated (really?) charges of forgery. She is now in a psychiatric unit.

Which I think high-schoolers and alumni alike can all understand.



Buffy: I'm inscrutable.

Joyce: You're 16. I think there's a biological imperative whereby I can't understand you because I'm not 16.

Buffy: ...do you ever wish you could be 16 again?

Joyce: Oh, that's a frightful notion. Go through all that again? Not even if it helped me understand you.

Buffy: I love you Mom.



thank you to whedonesque.com for the link
and yes, I know the picture is from the movie, but couldn't find any good screenshots from the ep