Notes on Buffy 1.05: Never Kill a Boy on the First Date

Big Announcement:  I'm happy to report that local_max has agreed to join in with Bro (Strudel) in commenting/dialoguing with these notes.  If y'all haven't read Max's stuff yet, get thee to his Live Journal immediately.  Go!  Now!  (OK, maybe read this post first, and then go).

A second announcement is that because of developments in season 8, I'm shifting to a twice a week posting schedule so we can get to Prophecy Girl before #37 comes out.   I'll be posting notes on Mondays and Thursdays.

Standard disclaimer: I'll often speak of foreshadowing, but that doesn't mean I'm at all committing to the idea that there was some fixed design from the word go -- it's a short hand for talking about the resonances that end up in the text as it unspools.

Standard spoiler warning: The notes are written for folks who have seen all of BtVS and AtS.  I'll be spoiling through the comics as well.  Basically -- if you are a spoiler-phobe and haven't seen or read it all, read further at your own risk. 

( Read more... )