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| Image from Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
Episode Title: Anne
Director: Joss Whedon
Writer: Joss Whedon
Original Air Date: September 29, 1998
In the handful of times that I went to a Buffy forum and looked at other people's top 10 favourite Buffy episodes, I do not recall ever seeing Anne mentioned. Yet, ever since I discovered Buffy, Anne has been one of my go to episodes during rewatch. It is a combination, I suppose, of the fact that it begins perhaps Buffy's best season (season three), and that I feel deeply for Buffy who is lost here.
Anne was the aftermath of what was, at that time, Buffy's greatest heartache. Her Mom had finally learnt that she was the Slayer. Mother and daughter had a major blowup before Buffy left to save the world, again. Angel got his soul back, but too late; Buffy was forced to kill him. More than a little lost, Buffy went to Los Angeles, started using her middle name, and worked as a waitress.
There, she ran into Lily, who, unlike Buffy, never learnt to take care of herself. Lily's boyfriend disappeared, and Buffy, though she initially said no, eventually agreed to help.
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There was a creature who has been taking young people off the streets, luring them into a kind of hell, working them to death, then spitting them back in the streets of LA. Time worked differently in that dimension, so that a hundred years could pass there, and only a day or two here. Lily ended up where her boyfriend had died, but Buffy soon followed. Buffy left Sunnydale, but what made her who she was, her unfailing strength, her bravery, her instinct to help people, never mind what it cost her, remained deeply within her.
The humans in hell were drained of hope, and told that they were 'no one' ('What is hell but the total absence of hope?' the demon who was Ken asked). When asked who she was, Buffy cheerily explained she was Buffy, the vampire slayer, before she proceeded to kick @rse. The demonic guards were able to beat the humans into submission, but not Buffy, who, apart from possessing supernatural strength and being perfectly capable of fighting back, has also consistently exhibited that giving up was not an option. Certainly, Buffy tried to leave her slayer life behind here, but the moment someone needed her help, as when a man was nearly hit by a vehicle, Buffy instinctively helped out. Lily belatedly found her strength, as well, and saved Buffy.
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The dialogue sings, of course, because this is Joss Whedon's work. A couple of my favourite scenes were the one when Buffy nonchalantly pulled a phone off a wall before the nurse who had been helping choose the victims could call the police, and the one when Buffy, well aware she was not good at undercover work, simply asked where the demon masquerading as Ken was, then kicked down the door. They were casual displays of strength that never fail to make me want to cheer for Buffy, no matter how many times I have seen this episode.
As affecting as Buffy's journey was, hers was not the only life touched when the powers of the slayer passed on to her. 'Joyce, you mustn't blame yourself for her leaving,' Giles gently told Buffy's mother. 'I don't,' Joyce replied. 'I blame you.' Buffy had this entire life that she kept secret from her mother, who barely had time to process that information before Buffy took off. The relationship between Joyce and Buffy has always been one of the show's quiet strengths, and when Buffy finally came home to her mother's embrace, it was as though we the viewers did, too.
Strays
■ Willow, Xander, Oz and Cordelia tried to keep the town's vampire population in check in Buffy's absence.
■ Buffy: 'I don't want any trouble. I just wanna be alone and quiet in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cosy. I don't even know what a tea cosy is, but I want one. Instead, I keep getting trouble, which I am more than willing to share.'
■ Ken: 'That was not permitted.' Buffy: 'Yeah, but it was fun.'
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