“Goals are not only absolutely necessary to motivate us. They are essential to really keep us alive.” - Robert H. Schuller
Previously on The GMC & D of Trick or Treat, I defined GMCD and selected the “Halloween” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to dissect. Let’s meet the heroine and her two best friends.
Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg, and Xander Harris are the embodiment of Sunnydale’s Scooby gang. Their ranks swell and shrink as the series progresses, but they are the heart of the group. Buffy is the sardonic and super-strong leader of the pack. Willow is the brainy, wholesome computer specialist while Xander is the adorably dorky rear guard.
Buffy is attracted to Angel, the vampire with a soul who shares her destiny to fight evil. Like any girl, she’s unsure where she stands. Their relationship is new and tentative. He’s had two hundred plus years to perfect his vision of a dream girl. That’s a lot to live up to. That’s also internal conflict.
She plans to meet Angel at The Bronze, the non-alcoholic everybody-who’s-anybody high school hotspot. This is the external episode goal, a subset of the long-term story goal – a romantic relationship.
Because episodic TV flows differently than novels, the story arc of a particular character stretches across several episodes – even seasons. Consider an episode goal akin to a story goal. In the scope of the show it’s rather short-term, but it follows the same rules as a long-term external goal. Buffy will make several attempts at quality time with Angel until she gets it right.
Why does Buffy want this relationship? She likes him in a way she’s never liked anyone before. He’s special. Besides, what girl doesn’t long for a boyfriend? A universal desire for most teenagers. And a key motivator.
However, when Buffy walks in, she spies Angel chatting it up with teen beauty queen, Cordelia Chase. External conflict.
Cordy is the reigning rich girl with a lock on social status and a cadre of Cordettes who hang on her every fashion syllable. She’s shallow, sharp, and sensationally insensitive. She’s also everything Buffy isn’t: tall, statuesque, self-obsessed. Predatory.
More internal conflict. Buffy’s insecurity radar blips to life. She’s covered in muck from a tussle with vampires in a pumpkin patch and feels like Blue Collar Barbie next to Cordelia’s Rodeo Drive radiance.
Angel can’t dump Cordy fast enough when he sees Buffy, but Cordelia is tenacious. She drops a stealth bomb with pinpoint accuracy, “Love your hair. It just screams street urchin.”
In her diminished state, Buffy’s ego craters. Who is she kidding? Dates are for normal girls (internal goal). She’ll never be normal (internal conflict). Buffy slinks away to lick her wounds, her first attempt thwarted.
Her personal baggage orchestrates this disheartening symphony of concession. She is not yet strong enough to stand up to Cordy (external) or believe in her own feminine appeal (internal), hence she beats a hasty retreat (disaster, both internal and external).
At school the next day, the principal ropes the Scooby gang - and their orbiting satellite of scorn, Cordelia - into the annual Halloween safety program. They must dress in costumes and shepherd a flock of elementary school kids for a couple of hours of trick-or-treating.
Another external obstacle. And unwelcome news for Buffy. Halloween marks the day real ghosts and goblins go to ground while humanity pours into the streets masquerading as them. A sort of house arrest for the unholy.
Her one day off in three-hundred-and-sixty-five and she has to run herd over a bunch of sugar-frosted rug rats. The date with Angel is going to have to wait.
While she and Willow commiserate, Larry - high school jock and bane of Xander’s existence (external conflict) - approaches Xander and asks him what his chances are of “scoring” with Buffy. Xander longs to stand up to bullies (external goal) like Larry plus he’s had a crush on Buffy since they first met.
But – come on, she’s supergirl. What guy could champion her? Especially one who is convinced he’s a coward (internal conflict).
Xander immediately opens mouth, spouts tough guy rhetoric, and inserts foot. He gets exactly what you’d expect – Larry up close and personal. Before Xander can act, Buffy leaps to his defense (more external conflict), easily man-handling Larry. She face-plants him into a locker and recommends Larry “get gone,” which he does.
Angle on Xander, who is mortification squared. His reputation as “sissy man” will now have “unlimited shelf life” thanks to Buffy (disaster). Xander storms off.
Oops. Buffy and Willow contemplate this all of two seconds before moving on to more important things. Like dating. How did her date go with Angel? Buffy replays her lame performance at The Bronze, worrying that he seemed awfully tight with Cordy.
Willow doesn’t believe he’d fall for Cordy’s act for a minute. She’s not his type. That’s the problem, Buffy retorts. What is his type? He’s not exactly a motor-mouth of private minutiae.
A lightbulb goes on for Willow. There’s all kinds of information about Angel in the watcher diaries. Which are in the library. Where Buffy’s perfectly proper - if guileless - watcher, Giles, spends every waking hour as school librarian. Hot dog! Rededication and new short-term goal.
With a little finessing, they confiscate the texts and rifle through to find an image of a beautiful noblewoman. Coiffed, coddled. Entitled. The kind of woman Angel knew. The kind of woman Buffy will never be. Another nail to the heart. Cordy hammers the point deeper when she proclaims Buffy may be a demon expert, but Cordy’s the slayer where dating is concerned (disaster part deux).
Thoroughly demoralized, Buffy and company head to Ethan’s costume shop. Willow wants to stand out like Buffy (external goal), earn a ticket to popularity paradise (motivation), but she’s been president of the nerd club for years (external conflict).
Wouldn’t Halloween be the perfect opportunity to break the mold? Surrounded by possibilities, Willow picks the biggest costume cliché going – a white sheet with eye holes, a goofy smile, and the word “Boo” stenciled across the front (disaster).
Buffy urges Will to seize the moment. Halloween is the only day a nice girl can be someone she’s not, someone “sexy and wild with no repercussions.” This doesn’t sit well with the conservative Willow. She longs for confidence (internal goal), but Buffy’s suggestion is out of her comfort zone (internal conflict). Safer to hide in Buffy’s shadow (motivation).
Then Buffy sees a near replica of the ball gown in the watcher diaries. She doesn’t say it, but of course she’s thinking, “Wait till Angel gets a load of me in this!” Like it’s all about the wrapping, not the gift inside. Buffy doesn’t know that yet. She thinks being someone she’s not is the answer to winning Angel (belief system).
In classic plot structure, this is the midpoint, the point of no return that often marks a reversal in character. Deb Dixon defines it as the gray moment in her Big Black Moment workshop. The heroine develops a false sense of confidence. She’s been handed the keys to the kingdom, but she opens the wrong door.
Buffy doesn’t know it now, but the decision to compromise herself and wear this dress will greatly escalate the coming big black moment of disasters and work heavily in the villain’s favor.
Here also we see the theme of the show manifest: being someone you’re not to make people like you. To win over a boy (Buffy), build esteem (Willow), or earn respect (Xander).
Will it work? Find out in the next installment of the GMC & D of Trick or Treat. We will pick up with the villain of the piece, rising tension, surprising character revelations, and the episode disaster.
Dialogue in italics from, “Halloween”, by Carl Ellsworth
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