Buffy vs. Dracula

Count Dracula is a well-known cultural phenomenon, has been that way for a good chunk of time now. And that is how this episode handles the famous villain. The power he has is both physical and mental, which makes him, of course, a tough nut to crack for the famous vampire slayer by the name of Buffy. And even though it is just a little over forty minutes long, "Buffy vs. Dracula" is rich on plot. Some of the elements may directly and nicely remind you of the original novel by Bram Stoker. I have read it and reread it several times now. It is an impressive piece of work, no doubt, and I loved it.

But I also loved this take on the old material. This isn't a horror story. It does not take itself that seriously. It is more fun. Not that dealing with something as lethal as the most famous bloodsucking demon is a laughing matter, but Buffy herself is part of why this episode is fun. Because it is clear she has, by now, grown to gain a certain level of enjoyment out of her unofficial work. Hunting vampires and killing them. She may not want to admit it, but destroying these demons has grown on her, and she does enjoy it now. She's filled with energy and can't wait to go deal with them. She has fun doing that job, that's just how good she has become at it. But that is just the titular heroine, and there is another reason this episode is fun. A bigger reason than just one character on the show, and that reason is the show itself. The way it tends to put certain things into question. Some things are not as serious as they may appear, and questioning them, or having fun questioning them, can be good for critical thinking. Like the unaired pilot episode questions why vampires keep dressing in a certain way that makes them easier to spot, or how an episode from season one and an episode from season four question why vampires are so afraid of crosses and holy symbols. Here, with Dracula, this way of thinking can also be found. And again, just because someone tries to laugh at something does not mean they aren't headed for some real trouble.

Also, though clearly an introduction to the season and a stand-alone story within the season, this episode has ways to introduce some highly important elements that could be crucial later. Only such things aren't done openly here. They are done in a smarter way. Can't help but appreciate this work.

While chasing a vampire in a cemetery, Buffy meets Dracula, who has come to Sunntdale to meet her. Buffy feels proud with the revelation of the greatest vampire in the world. Meanwhile, Giles secretly tells Willow that he will return to England since Buffy does not need his service of watcher anymore. Dracula turns Xander into his slave, and during the night, he visits Buffy, bites and put her under his thrall. Buffy hides the bite with a scarf and becomes powerless and seduced by the dark prince, who promises to disclose to her the darkness of her powers and increase them.

This episode has funny moments, like for example when Xander mocks Dracula in the cemetery or Willow tries to make Giles feel important as watcher or Buffy tells Dracula that she has watched his movies. But the conclusion is disappointing. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Buffy Versus Drácula" ("Buffy Versus Dracula")

Buffy is out patrolling when she runs into the dark prince himself - Dracula. He violates all of the rules, so Buffy's usual methods and assumptions don't work on this guy. He can materialize and dematerialize at will. He can change form into a bat or wolf. He lives in a mansion with his "brides" rather than slumming in an abandoned building or crypt.

Giles, in spite of his librarian/watcher pedigree has little knowledge of the one vampire who is a matinee favorite in the western world. Dracula ultimately gets Buffy to allow him to bite her, makes Xander into a Renfield type servant, and seduces Giles with his wives. Complications ensue.

Lots of people don't like this episode, mainly because it doesn't seem like a season premiere episode. I think it's lots of fun, and I like the fact that it was played for laughs. There are plenty of other properties that treat Dracula with all this importance and gravitas, I thought this was a refreshing twist on the character.

Terrible episode full of plot holes. If you're going to do dracula, do it right. Make him an absolute beast and make an entire season out of it. There was so much more they could have done with this.

Buffy vs. Dracula is possibly the strangest season opener of the series. It doesn't really wrap anything up or continue where season 4 left off (then again, Restless was also a strange season finale). Apart from the last 15 seconds it doesn't introduce anything new for the episodes that follow. Thematically, Dracula's interactions with Buffy set up a thread the rest of the series will explore more deeply--the relationship between a Slayer's nature and the darkness of the supernatural world--and that's probably about the strongest through-line linking this episode to the show proper.

Perhaps that is why it feel like a non-canonical episode to me. Like fan fiction. Nothing within it engenders consequence. I guess the same could be said of many season one episodes but the show has tended much more toward serialization since then. The characters also feel off-model, like caricatures of themselves, drawn with unsure strokes. Xander in particular feels like a cartoon. I guess it's the thrall that's to blame, but making him the weak-willed, mind-controlled servant for the sake of comedic shenanigans just feels easy, a superficial understanding of Xander as a dimensional being. Like if you're having a conversation with your friends about which Scooby would fill the Renfield role and you all immediately shout in unison, "Xander!" Buffy at its best is a show that defies expectations. This choice is too obvious. It lacks in depth. It would have been more interesting, and perhaps brought something new out of her character, to have Tara fulfill that function. Just as an example.

Dracula himself also fits uneasily into the show. He has powers no vampire before has possessed. (Drusilla has demonstrated hypnotic abilities, so at least there is precedent for that. But none have become fog.) These powers don't necessarily correspond to Bram Stoker's novel, in which Dracula walks around freely in sunlight. These abilities are dismissed by a chagrined Spike as parlor tricks, but they're pretty effective. Why wouldn't more vampires learn them? Maybe it goes back to their aversion to tackiness, the same disdain that keeps them quiet (usually) on Halloween. Dracula's presence would seem to open a door into a world of new possibilities for vampire foes, but as far as I recall that is never explored. Goes further to making this episode feel isolated from the rest of the show.

Anyway, if you treat Buffy vs. Dracula as a non-canonical TV event, like the Star Wars Holiday Special, those problems fall away and it becomes entertaining. It is fun to see the Scoobies having a day at the beach, though that is brought to an unceremonious end when Willow's pyrokinesis backfires. (Her magic is such an inconsistently treated plot device it is really starting to bother me. Her spells work effortlessly when the writers need them to and then fail spectacularly when they're scrambling for a punchline.) Enthralled Xander is, admittedly, pretty funny and has the episode's best lines.

Side note: Interestingly, Xander is at his grossest/horniest/most inappropriate when Marti Noxon writes him and I think it's supposed to be endearing? When he requests details about Willow and Tara's lesbian sex life, I cringe. I guess I knew teenage boys like that when I was in high school (I knew better than to request lap dances from my female friends) but they made girls uncomfortable, which is never textually acknowledged within the show. So it makes me surprised that a female writer would seemingly be most gung-ho about representing him in such a way.

I also enjoy the looming castle and the throwbacks to Hammer movies and Victorian novels, especially the inclusion of Dracula's brides. (They are not taken seriously as threats, which furthers my non-canonical interpretation. Can you imagine in another episode Giles being overwhelmed by three vampires without anyone displaying alarm?) Buffy as a show has often engaged with Gothic pastiche in its own suburban idiom but never with this level of purity. It makes me wish there had been a time-travel adventure where Buffy wound up in Whitechapel around the time of the Ripper murders, or something.