What’s your favorite Buffy Halloween episode? – Quibbling Siblings

Bob:

Well, it’s getting to be that time of year again. The leaves are finally turning here in the northeast and the pumpkins are starting to get set out on front stoops. That can only mean one thing – Halloween is right around the corner. When start thinking about the holiday, I can’t help but be reminded of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One of our favorite shows, I always enjoyed the Halloween episodes that the show put out.

First, there was the episode (“Halloween”) early on when all the characters were turned into their costumes. You remember Xander the soldier, Willow the sexy ghost, and Buffy the annoying helpless girl in a pretty dress. It was the beginning of fun Halloween traditions, but not my favorite episode. I definitely preferred the episode a couple years later (“Fear, Itself”) that featured a frat house’s haunted house getting a little too scary. Who could forget the tiny little fear demon? Finally, Dawn got into the action in “All the Way.” That was a fun episode as well, with Dawn causing trouble with a couple of boys who (of course) ended up being vampires. Yes, it may have been an example of annoying Dawn, but I still liked the way it turned things around and turned Buffy into the cranky authority figure.

Which one is your favorite?

Debbie:

So your train of thought goes something like this: foliage – pumpkins – Halloween – Buffy? Some might say you were a bit too addicted!

Hands down, “Fear Itself” is my favorite of the Buffy Halloween episodes. In fact, it makes my top ten list of all Buffy episodes. I’ll never forget the first time I saw it, and it was revealed that the fear demon was evil Tom Thumb … uproarious! Then, re-watching it became even funnier, because I watched all of the drama through new eyes and saw just how tongue-in-cheek it was. A brilliant episode, chock-full of Oz and Giles goodness.

Buffy always approached Halloween in general with such a tongue-in-cheek point of view, purporting that it was one of the safest nights to be out and about because the actual monsters wanted nothing to do with the freakfest that is Halloween. And I like how sometimes they did Halloween and sometimes not, because it wouldn’t have fit in at that time for the season it was.

Bob:

Usually my train of thought goes foliage – pumpkins – Halloween – annoying little children coming to my house and expecting candy, but I was using Buffy to try to put a positive spin on a holiday I otherwise despise.

You’re right, though, Buffy set up a nice little mythology around Halloween that they were able to go to more than a couple times without overusing it. I think it’s kind of interesting that Angel never used the same trope, especially during the less serious final season.

“Fear Itself” was a lot of fun, but what did you think of the other two Halloween episodes?

Debbie:

I would definitely chastise you for being such a Halloween Grinch … if I wasn’t right there with you. I think my past life as a classroom teacher taught me to hate Halloween for what it did to the entire month of November, when the kids brought all of their Halloween candy to school for snack and lunch everyday.

“Halloween” I liked because it was one of the first episodes we got a glimpse at some other facets of Willow’s personality … maybe the first time we saw some confidence show through. “All the Way” … who is this Dawn you speak of? *lalalalalalalalala with fingers in ears*

Bob:

All you Dawn haters. She wasn’t that bad… and sometimes she added quite a bit to the show.

Clacked by Bob Degon
on Oct 27, 2011 @ 11:00 EST5EDT