'Doppelgangland' is a watershed moment for Willow,
and a Whedon episode to boot.
Throughout the series so far, I’ve pointed to moments where we’ve gotten glimpses of a powerful and assertive woman
beneath Willow’s indecisive outer persona.
Here, these elements are brought into the light,
in an episode that even Joss Whedon picked for one of his
...personal Top 10s in the entire series.
*'Doppelgangland
At the foot of the demon D’Hoffryn,
Anya is pleading for the powers of The Wish back
something she's been wielding for more than a thousand years.
“And now I’m stuck at Sunnydale High."
"Mortal."
"A child."
"And I’m flunking math!”
At school, Willow and Buffy are keeping sharp for battle,
Willow by practicing a little pencil levitation
and Buffy with some sit-ups.
It’s interesting to me how Willow seems unconcerned to be doing this in front of the other students.
Almost as though the other students are aware of the supernatural world,
even if it goes unspoken between.
Buffy explains that as a result of Allan’s murder
she and Faith are being put through some physical and psychological examinations.
"Plus, you'll definitely ace her on the psych tests."
"I know Faith's not exactly gonna be on the cover of Sanity Fair, but...."
"...she had it rough."
"Different circumstances, that could be me."
I’ve read some disparaging remarks about how Buffy treated Faith so far this season
but from my perspective it seems like Buffy has been one of Faith’s greatest advocates.
She went to bat for her on behalf of Giles.
"It's not all her fault, Giles."
"We both thought it was a vampire."
"I-I only---"
She stands up for her here with a jealous Willow.
I never read her actions in the previous two-parter as levying judgement
but rather demanding responsibility.
Snyder
(dear God I missed you Snyder)
"I'm so stoked!"
...assigns Willow to tutor school basketball star Percy West in history.
"Assigns" is probably a word a little too nice for Snyder.
“I know you want to help your school out here."
"Ask me how I know.”
“How do y--”
“I just...know.”
Percy instantly assumes she’s going to be writing the paper for him
and Willow seems ready to acquiesce.
As she does often in her life.
“Willow get on the computer."
"I want you to take another pass at accessing the Mayor's files.”
“Okay.”
An exhausted Wesley enters the library with a placid Faith.
Faith watches Willow trying to hack the Mayor’s personal files on her computer
and promptly passes the information onto Wilkins.
"Are you serious about this place?"
"Of course I am."
"No Slayer of mine is gonna live in fleabag hotel."
It’s hard to describe in proper detail how much I love watching Faith and Wilkins together
and in writing this I genuinely struggle to figure out why I’m so smitten.
I think it’s because they are reflections of each other.
In this season we’ve watched Faith struggle for a connection,
and stumble due to her own trust issues
as well as some missteps by the people around her.
You could see her reaching for love and connection
but unable to break past those barriers.
But the Mayor knows she’s duplicitous.
He sees all sides of her.
She can be herself.
It may be evil, underhanded, and unhealthy.
But their relationship feels...
...honest.
And I think she reflects his own dichotomy.
The Mayor is evil with a sweet side
and Faith is sweet with an evil side.
In addition,
and rather uniquely in Faith’s experience with men,...
"If I'd have known they came that young and cute I would have requested a transfer."
"This, um..."
"...this new girl seems to have a lot of zest."
[Giles grin]
...the Mayor shows no interest in her as a sexual object.
“Thanks, Sugar Daddy.”
"Now, Faith,"
"...I don’t find that sort of thing amusing."
"I’m a family man."
It’s the first time we see Faith totally joyful.
And on the other hand, Willow is feeling unappreciated and uncool.
She storms away from Buffy and Xander and runs into Anya.
Anya asks her to do a spell.
and Willow gets excited at the prospect of getting to do anything with even a hint of danger that's outside of her wheelhouse.
Anya brings out a plate with a picture of her power center from 'The Wish'
and the two of them engage in the spell.
The magic causes a vision in Willow of 'The Wish'’s hellscape,
in which she and Xander have been turned, Sunnydale is in chaos and many people have died.
In her reverie, she accidentally pours the sand over her own hand instead of the plate,
bringing vampire’d Willow from the other dimension.
Given her physical arrangement with Anya, it seemed almost inevitable to me that the sand would miss the plate and hit either her hand or Anya's.
At The Bronze, Vamp Willow runs into Percy who demands an explanation for why she isn’t off writing his homework assignment.
Xander finds Vamp-Willow who mistakes him for her chilly beau.
"Hands!"
"Hands in new places.”
“You’re alive.”
Buffy and Xander confuse Vamp and normal Willow,
Vamp Willow takes out Wilkins' minions and turns them into her gang members.
They set out to turn the world back into the Wish-verse.
Meanwhile, Xander and Buffy have told Giles about Willow's death.
“She was truly,"
"...the finest of all of us.”
Willow enters and everyone realizes something else is going on.
Vamp Willow and her new crew burst in and try to take things over.
Vamp Willow demonstrates the gravity of the situation to her hostages.
She first licks
and then drains one of the female onlookers.
Anya has sorted out the details of what’s going on and offers to send Vamp Willow home.
All she needs to do is get normal Willow to cast a spell.
Willow is jumped by her double who tries to...
...ahh...
...entice her?
She instead tosses her and Willow grabs the Oz gun and tranquilizes her double.
Buffy comes up with the idea of using Willow as a decoy
and sending the vamps out one at a time.
“You know, I think maybe I heard something out there."
"Why don’t you go check?”
At The Bronze, Anya susses out what is exactly going on and Willow screams for help.
The Gang breaks in and takes down the minions.
This fight in The Bronze is one of my favorites so far.
It’s not an episode particularly well known for the battle
but all of the editing is quick,
the choreography is very fluid,
the violence feels brutal and realistic
and there’s very very little of
‘Oh look the stunt double.’
And in the final scene,
the Gang goes out of their way to send Vamp Willow back to her own dimension.
Of course,
the universe is an uncaring one,
...even for vampires.
So in the name of covering all our bases let’s start with the obvious first.
The title 'Doppelgangland' is a wordplay of "doppelgänger" and "gangland".
According to Wikipedia, a doppelgänger is a look-alike or double of a living person,
in some traditions as a harbinger of bad luck and in other traditions and stories...
...an evil twin.
Vamp Willow is the doppelgänger and she forms her own crew to engage in a bit of gangland violence.
Then again,
it is Willow who takes over her Vamp self's part in the episode
so who is the real doppelgänger?
All of this of course a model for Buffy
and her doppelgänger,
Faith.
"She gets along with my friends, my Watcher, my Mom..."
"Mom, I'm just getting my life back."
"I'm not looking to go halfsies on it."
“You can’t handle watching me living my own way, having a blast, because it tempts you."
"You know it could be you!”
[retaliation backhand]
What we have here is Willow experiencing the psychological process of individuation
that we talked about in the episode 'Homecoming',
something Buffy went through with Cordy when they both went for the Homecoming Queen title.
Quick refresher,
the Wikipedian definition of "individuation" says that it’s a developmental process during which innate elements of personality,
the components of the immature psyche, and the experiences of the person's life become integrated over time into a well-functioning whole.
More simply,
we come to understand our own innate immature impulses
and how to live with them as adults.
"I just thought..."
"Homecoming Queen."
"I could...pick up a yearbook someday and say..."
"I was there."
"I went to high school, I had friends and..."
"...for one moment..."
"I got to live in the world."
Here, Willow is still stung over Buffy’s unwillingness to 'bring her with' in 'Bad Girls',
something they never really reconciled due to Buffy's needing to confess to someone about Allen.
And Willow has misidentified the source of problems in her life
as not being a Bad Girl herself.
In casting the spell, she brings Vamp Willow into this reality.
Initially, she refers to the Vamp version as though it were mostly a duplicate of herself,
describing the Vamp version in the first person.
"I’m so evil and...skanky."
"And I think I’m kinda gay.”
This sets up the opportunity to become the doppelgänger
and take the Vamp's place,
experiencing all the things she THOUGHT she wanted.
In the form of a hot leather outfit...
“Gosh, look at those.”
...that could be the distant cousin of her outfit from 'Halloween'.
She gets to play the evil part and participate in the battles she wasn’t able to do in 'Bad Girls',
and finally comes to an understanding.
"I mean, I know she’s not me."
"We have a big nothing in common, but..."
"...still.”
My takeaway here is we are NOT our dark halves.
Our impulses.
Buffy is not Faith,
something vividly demonstrated here in the form of an echo.
"Faith, no!"
[stab]
“Buffy, no!”
[stop]
But those desires demand our acknowledgment.
They are a part of us, unable to be removed psychically or surgically,
and with an explosive potential that increases in volatility the harder we deny their existence.
Only in self-acceptance is there the true possibility for freedom.
Willow is never the same again after this episode.
'Doppelgangland' is a Whedon episode.
The Whedon written and directed phenomena on 'Buffy' is such a dramatic one.
Whedon episodes just feel funnier, crisper, sharper.
On fire with ideas and substance.
And 'Doppelgangland' is probably one of his best.
If I tried to make a highlight reel of the episode's great lines
the review would be as long as the episode itself.
“--magic is dangerous, Anya,"
"...i-It’s not be toyed with."
"Now if you’ll excuse me, I have someone else’s homework to do.”
As good as 'Doppelgangland' is,
and trust me
it is good.
Amazing in fact.
The problem for me is not anything to do with the episode
but its role in the season arc.
It completely undercuts the drama and moral outrage
that 'Bad Girls' and 'Consequences' were attempting to drum up.
We spent an entire very talky episode with Faith and Buffy discussing the morality and justification of murder,
the both Utilitarian or Objectivism-like qualifications for when it’s acceptable.
It felt like we were poised for a very 'Amends' or 'Lie to Me' like thesis about the nature of morality.
Faith nearly strangled to death one of our beloved Scoobies.
And as a result of all that we get,
the Slayers having to take some physical and psych exams?
As much as I treasure the sites and sounds of the boulevard this sudden left turn has taken us down
I can’t help but feel a little disoriented by the whole thing.
That’s not really a strike against the episode itself,
more a continuation of a season arc that has felt a little less sure of itself then 'Season 2'’s did.
It’s like having a friend with this amazing personality
but crippling shyness that refuses to let it be seen very often.
But 'Doppelgangland' is still a treasure
-perhaps one of the greatest episodes in the series to date.
"It's horrible."
"That's me as a vampire?"
"I'm so evil and...skanky."
"And I think I’m kinda gay.”
"--think I’m kinda gay.”
"--gay.” "--gay.” "--gay.”
[Lesbian Subtext Bell]