Welcome Back to the Hellmouth: “Witch”

“This is madness. What can you have been thinking? You are the slayer! Lives depend on you!”

What’s Giles talking about?

Cheerleading.

Cheerleading is the perfect stage for an episode that, in broad strokes, is about the harm parental pressure can do—not just to one kid, but to those around her. It’s a sport that’s widely disdained as superficial and dumb (a perception that’s changing, sure, but this was the ’90s), and one done mostly by women. “Cheerleader” is common teen movie shorthand for “popular, perfect, unattainable, probably mean unless she’s the really sweet one.” You put cheerleaders in your vampire show, you’re doing it for a reason. Or several.

“Witch” is much better than I remembered. And much lonelier, too.

Season 1, Episode 3Witch
Written by Dana Reston
Directed by Stephen Cragg
Original airdate: March 17, 1997
Rewatch date: March 17, 2017

“I will still have time to fight the forces of evil, ok? I just wanna have a life. I want to do something normal. Something safe.”

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Welcome Back to the Hellmouth: “Witch”