Season 2, Episode 6: Halloween

The Cleveland Hellmouth

In this episode!

• We discuss the rules of Vampire Entry (thanks, Jessica Branch!), and Mark calls for constitutional rights for vampires.
• Mark and Katherine come up with reasons for why the Scoobies don’t have PTSD.
• Mark says Ethan Raine is the Linda Tripp of the Buffyverse; Mark loves Ethan, and Katherine can’t stand him.
• Katherine has zero aesthetic distance. Where do our listeners stand on this?
• We wonder along with Willow—how does Angel shave? Also, Mark wonders how Spike’s lackey was able to film a vampire fight?
• Mark’s favorite moment: when Xander beats up the pirate and says that it was strangely satisfying and brought him closure.
• Mark says that “Snyder is in on it.”
• Katherine shares the tidbit that Buffy calls out to Xena the Warrior Princess, and in turn, an episode of Xena did a shout out to Buffy.
• Mark says that Buffy does what very few shows do and that is to change the rules of narrativity frequently. Watchers of the show might be left in confusion for as long as 20 minutes before things click into place. Katherine points out that Whedon is one of the show runners credited with trusting viewers to live with confusion and figure things out over time. We both agree this makes for a very rich show.
• Katherine wonders if the listeners agree that Halloween is a wonderful holiday filled with magic and mystery and “dressing as you aren’t.” Mark says this about Halloween: “eh.”

Note: By the way, Mark is right about The Prisoner. He is number 6.

Shout outs

• Jessica Branch
• Andy Schumann