Buffy as an Apocalyptic Narrative: Examining "Hush" (Season 4, Episode 10)
The cast of "Buffy"
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a popular television show created and produced by Joss Whedon that aired from 1997-2003 and includes seven seasons. The overarching theme of the series is apocalypse – the main character of the show, Buffy Summers, is the Slayer, or the one chosen to battle vampires, demons, and forces of darkness, and ultimately prevent apocalypse from occurring. Although there are major overarching apocalyptic events that the characters are trying to prevent over the course of entire seasons, smaller apocalyptic events also occur within single episodes, like when The Gentlemen come to town in “Hush” (Season 4, Episode 10). Thus, Buffy is an epitome of the apocalypse genre. “Hush” itself is a groundbreaking episode – even though only 17 minutes of the 44-minute episode contain actual dialogue, the episode is still able to portray the utter chaos and disruption of normal life that is caused by apocalypse, explore common fears and paranoia, provide political commentary, and also convey a meaningful message, just like written apocalyptic narratives. It does so through use of stunning visuals, an amazing film score, and exaggerated examples of nonverbal communication.
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The premise of the episode is that a group of creepy fairytale villains called The Gentlemen (and their footmen) arrive in Buffy’s hometown of Sunnydale and wreak havoc. They steal everyone’s voices one night by trapping them in a small wooden box, and subsequently go on a murder spree. Ultimately, their goal is to obtain seven human hearts. It is not stated what happens if The Gentlemen collect all seven hearts, but it can be assumed that it would not be good. The only way they can be defeated is by a human scream. Thus, it is up to Buffy and her friends to save the day. However, The Gentlemen coming to town is not the sole conflict of the episode. In fact, the main focus of the episode is on communication. The episode explores how people communicate and miscommunicate. It begins with a dream sequence in which Buffy is sitting an auditorium at college and her psychology professor is lecturing on the difference between communication and language:
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“Talking about communication, talking about language. Not the same thing. It’s about the way a child can recognize and produce phonemes that don’t occur in its native language. It’s about inspiration: not the idea, but the moment before the idea; when it’s total, when it blossoms in your mind and connects to everything, before the coherent thought that gives it shape, that locks it in and cuts it off from the universal. When you can articulate it, it becomes smaller. It’s about thoughts and experiences that we don’t have a word for.”
In an article for the Welcome Collection, Russel Dornan expertly articulates what Walsh – and Whedon – are trying to convey. Essentially, the idea is that verbal language, like speech, can act as a barrier to communication because it limits a person’s ability to express how they feel. In a DVD audio commentary on the episode, Whedon states that language can interfere with communication because people tend to "use language as white noise" and "misuse it horribly" sometimes, like by telling lies. This use of language can be considered locutionary and conveys little meaning (Jenkins & Stuart, 2003).
The first third of the episode contains the most dialogue, and yet it is full of miscommunication, arguments, and characters withholding information from other characters. For instance, Buffy and her love interest, Riley, are unable to tell each other how they feel and are also keeping secrets about their true identities – that Buffy is the Slayer, and that Riley is a covert operative for the Initiative. These two things have been preventing them from building a relationship. Similarly, Buffy’s friend Xander and his girlfriend Anya are also having relationship issues – Xander is unable to express to Anya what she means to him, and that frustrates Anya. Lastly, Buffy’s other friend Willow is experiencing issues of her own – she is involved in a Wicca group at college because she wants to expand upon her magical abilities, but the group is all talk. They appear to care more about bake sales than magic.
The first third of the episode contains the most dialogue, and yet it is full of miscommunication, arguments, and characters withholding information from other characters. For instance, Buffy and her love interest, Riley, are unable to tell each other how they feel and are also keeping secrets about their true identities – that Buffy is the Slayer, and that Riley is a covert operative for the Initiative. These two things have been preventing them from building a relationship. Similarly, Buffy’s friend Xander and his girlfriend Anya are also having relationship issues – Xander is unable to express to Anya what she means to him, and that frustrates Anya. Lastly, Buffy’s other friend Willow is experiencing issues of her own – she is involved in a Wicca group at college because she wants to expand upon her magical abilities, but the group is all talk. They appear to care more about bake sales than magic.
Buffy and Riley spontaneously kiss for the first time
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Xander shows Anya how much she means to him
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Willow and Tara work together to survive
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By removing the characters’ ability to speak, it forces them to rely on nonverbal communication to solve their issues. Rather than telling the story, there is a much greater emphasis on showing the events that play out. Initially, the characters are distraught and confused by their sudden loss of speech, but as the episode progresses, the characters work past this barrier by using nonverbal communication techniques and are even able to express themselves more fully than if they had used speech. The nonverbal communication techniques utilized are perlocutionary - they convey deeper meaning and evoke action (Jenkins & Stuart, 2003). These scenes are powerful – Buffy and Riley spontaneously kiss and progress their relationship when they run into each other in town, Xander is finally able to show Anya just how much she means to him when he beats up another character who he mistakenly believes to have killed her, and Willow forms a new connection with fellow Wicca member Tara when they use magic to work together and escape The Gentlemen. There is also a moment later on when Buffy and Riley run into each other while fighting off footmen, exposing their respective secrets. After Buffy saves the day by defeating The Gentlemen – she does this by screaming once the box containing everyone’s voices has been destroyed, which causes The Gentlemen’s heads to explode – she and Riley agree to talk. They end up sitting in silence until the credits roll. Ironically, the characters appear to stop communicating again once they get their voices back.
Ultimately, the main message of this episode comes from the commentary on language and communication. Much like written apocalyptic narratives, the episode offers some insight into the issue at hand – "When we stop talking, truths start coming out." In other words, while talking is important, it is more important for people to be able to fully convey their emotions without misusing language as white noise or as a means of avoiding the truth, which can sometimes be easier to convey through nonverbal communication. While this main message is unconventional compared to other apocalyptic narratives, the episode does also touch upon some of the more traditional traits of an apocalyptic narrative, like showing the disruption of normal life, exploring common fears, and providing political commentary.
Ultimately, the main message of this episode comes from the commentary on language and communication. Much like written apocalyptic narratives, the episode offers some insight into the issue at hand – "When we stop talking, truths start coming out." In other words, while talking is important, it is more important for people to be able to fully convey their emotions without misusing language as white noise or as a means of avoiding the truth, which can sometimes be easier to convey through nonverbal communication. While this main message is unconventional compared to other apocalyptic narratives, the episode does also touch upon some of the more traditional traits of an apocalyptic narrative, like showing the disruption of normal life, exploring common fears, and providing political commentary.
Buffy and Willow walk through a dystopian Sunnydale
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In just a few scenes, normal life is disrupted, and Sunnydale swiftly descends into chaos. In the beginning, viewers see the initial confusion and hysteria – college students cry in the dorm halls and people fruitlessly attempt to call their loved ones over the phone. When Buffy and Willow venture out into town, the full scope of the issue is revealed. People are seen aimlessly wandering around town. A businessman with a briefcase is seen sitting in the middle of the street, looking hopeless and lost. The bank is closed, but the liquor store is still open, and Sunnydale’s citizens flock to it. A preacher is seen leading a group of followers in a reading of Revelation 15:1: “And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” Whedon states that he included this shot to indicate how "Religious craziness" tends to pop up "the moment there's a problem." Some individuals are also seen taking advantage of the new situation, selling whiteboards on the street for $10 each. Whedon notes that whenever he thinks about "rampant capitalism" popping up "the moment there's a problem," like this scene portrays, he thinks "of people selling American flags within five seconds after the World Trade Center incident." A few scenes later, Sunnydale appears to have completely broken down and is as dystopian as its literary counterparts – fights are breaking out in the streets, fires are burning, and the shattering of glass suggests that stores are being broken into.
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Elements of this visual portrayal of apocalypse are reminiscent of many novels in the apocalypse genre. The reliance and dependence of citizens on alcohol is reminiscent of Future Home of the Living God, in which Cedar stockpiles alcohol and cigarettes because she knows they will become more valuable than money. Similar examples of rampant capitalism can be seen in The Year of the Flood (i.e., the mass marketing of beauty products and other products made from endangered animals) and Zone One (i.e., all of the Reconstruction merchandise available to survivors of the apocalypse). Seeking an explanation through religion for the destruction that has been caused is a theme that has also been seen in Future Home of the Living God (i.e., the religious group that takes over governance of the area in which Cedar lives), The Year of the Flood (i.e., Adam One and the Gardeners), and Station Eleven (i.e., the Prophet). Scenes of social collapse, like people fighting and stores being ransacked, is commonplace in pretty much every apocalyptic novel.
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Besides the disruption of normal life and the descent into chaos, the episode also explores common fears. Fears are primarily explored through the portrayal of The Gentlemen and their footmen. In an interview, Whedon stated that his inspiration for The Gentlemen was actually a childhood dream that he had about figures floating at him while being unable to scream. In the DVD audio commentary, Whedon adds that all of the elements of The Gentlemen - the Victorian kind of feel, the politeness, the suits, the footmen - came from his dream, Nosferatu, Pinhead, Mr. Burns, or anything else that he thought would convey a creepy, classical feel. He also notes that they hired mostly mimes for the episode, so The Gentlemen would appear more realistic and terrifying. And what is more terrifying than not being able to speak, feeling isolated from the people around you, and not even being able to scream for help when a fairytale villain comes to carve out your heart? It is the portrayal of isolation, of helplessness and vulnerability, and people being too frightened to help each other that drives home the terror in this episode (Whedon, 2003). This theme of fear surrounding the inability to speak also ties in with paranoia. Initially, a written statement about the issue in Sunnydale is released by local authorities, who contribute it to a mysterious town wide epidemic of laryngitis caused by recent flu vaccinations. This is clearly a dig at the infamous paper claiming that vaccines cause autism in children. The claim is ultimately not scientifically supported, yet people are more willing to accept it than the actual truth. By attributing the cause of the silencing to laryngitis caused by vaccines and not The Gentlemen, local authorities fail to address the real issue at hand. This is similar to how people also fail to address a problem when they turn to religion and claim that an event occurred as a result of God punishing humans.
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The Gentlemen prepare to carve up their latest victim
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There are also political overtones in the portrayal of The Gentlemen – in Giles’ research into these fairytale villains, he writes, “Political ref? re. Bill of Rights.” This reference to the Bill of Rights and freedom of speech brings new symbolism to the act of The Gentlemen taking away the townspeople’s voices. The silence that results isolates the members of the community and weakens their attempts to fight off the evil (Shade, 2005). Noel Murray writes in The A.V. Club that the silencing that The Gentlemen do can be seen as a metaphor for the way evil is spread, by interfering with communication and silencing dissent. Joseph Russomanno further speaks on these political overtones in an article for Slate, comparing the actions of The Gentlemen to those of authoritarian leaders who censor their citizens and take away freedom of speech so no one can speak about their evil deeds and overthrow them. Russomanno talks about how democratic societies, like the U.S., tend to see the restriction of speech as an evil act. Under the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment, freedom of speech has been an important milestone for Americans, under which citizens are allowed to openly criticize the government and its officials with the hope of enacting change and ensuring that the government is held accountable. Under a censorship regime, however, the government cannot be held accountable because the political voices of the public and the media are censored to conceal truths. This adds another layer to the topic of communication, suggesting that the ability to speak is important, and leads to widescale oppression and suffering if stifled by the government. Thus, the issue of communication is dynamic; on the one hand, nonverbal communication can be more important than verbal communication, since it can allow a person to communicate how they really feel without limiting themselves by words, but on the other hand, lack of verbal communication can also cause society to crumble and permit citizens to be oppressed. At the end of the day, both nonverbal and verbal communication have their strengths and weaknesses.
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Even though not much is actually spoken in the episode, "Hush" still manages to say a lot. It fully embodies the apocalyptic narrative, showing through stunning visuals how an apocalyptic event can destroy a town and alter normal ways of life, causing people to seek answers for the bizarre and turn to maladaptive coping mechanisms like drinking alcohol. It preys on common fears, like the inability to scream when attacked and the isolation that individuals feel when they can no longer communicate with their peers. It also provides political commentary on oppression, such as how harmful silencing people can be in the real world when censorship is employed by government officials. Surprisingly, this ties in with the main message of the episode. The episode explores the limits and assets of language and communication, showing how nonverbal communication is just as essential as speech, and can be more effective in conveying how people feel. However, verbal communication is also essential because when communication breaks down, society descends into chaos and oppression can occur. Ultimately, televised apocalyptic narratives can be just as effective as written narratives.
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Below is a copy of the presentation I created to summarize the ideas expressed in this essay. Click the file below to download the presentation and play the audiovisual clips embedded in the PowerPoint. Thank you for reading!
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