Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 2

Buffy Season 2 is a fascinating beast in many ways. It's a cautionary tale about the dangers of losing yourself and your identity in any person. With this, the twisted imagery of sexuality, blood, and vampirism constantly recur throughout the second season.

Buffy's second season is centered on the interrogation of what it means to be a slayer for Buffy. Existentialism is a core theme in Buffy's second season, with the second season ruminating on the emotional cost of being a slayer.

This theme makes sense coming off the first season and with Buffy's acceptance of her Slayer calling (i.e., adulthood). The show constantly implores Buffy to act on her authentic self and not lose herself entirely. It's a giant character for Buffy across 22 episodes.

Buffy's existentialist themes make sense in its coming-of-age story, with adulthood being about making choices in hard situations[i.e., Lie To Me, Becoming 2-parter]. These themes are well-established throughout the season with setup/payoff.

Concurrently, Buffy Season 2 explores the concept of twisted sexuality and the intentional mirroring of the relationships between Buffy and Angel/Angel and Spike/Drusilla. Both intentionally mirror each other's jealousy and their actions, respectively. [Angelus terrorizes Dru and later on terrorizes Buffy].

With that in mind, Surprise - Innocence acts as the mission statement for the show. It realizes the full potential of the idea of vampires as a metaphor for the obstacles to the growth of an individual, and the show's anxiety about the lack of growth, with vampires personifying this theme.

In Surprise-Innocence Angel's turn to Angelus and the big bad of Season 2 feels like a thematic conclusion of that idea. Hence, it acts as an allegory about men turning abusive and distant the morning after having an intimate affair, especially in an imbalanced relationship.

The show is less ambivalent about this relationship. Buffy-Angel's relationship is a relationship built on an unequal power balance, suppressing an individual's identity and unsustainable, leading to heavy consequences with Angelus.

Hence, the Lolita imagery recurs in Becoming Part 1, addresses this very issue, the surreal dreams of virginity loss in Surprise, and the phallic imagery of Spike and Angel as sexual predators highlights the twisted and grotesque sexuality in Season 2 with its consequences.

Hence, this eschews the gendered roles present throughout the horror genre, with the treatment of sex in the horror genre used to punish people with their death, especially women. However, it's Angel who faces the brunt of Buffy's actions in Surprise.

Hence, it's here that Buffy represents existentialism while Angelus represents determinism. In Becoming Part 1, we see Buffy and Angel's paths paralleled throughout this episode to illustrate Buffy's journey throughout the show and, hence, a coming-of-age story.

Overall, Buffy Season 2, despite its inconsistent quality, is a fascinating piece of television on heroism, twisted sexuality, existentialism, and phallic sexual imagery tied to the slayer role. It's a season that, despite its missteps, remains an important season of the Buffyverse.

Writing: 8/10

Direction: 7/10

Cinematography: 7/10

Acting: 9/10

Editing: 7/10

Sound: 8/10

Score: 9/10

Prod Design: 8/10

Casting: 10/10

Effects: 6/10

Overall Score: 7.9/10