Afterword: The Genius of Joss Whedon You could never hope to

Afterword: The Genius of Joss Whedon
You
could
never
hope
to
grasp
the
source
of
our
power.
Über
Buffy
to
Adam
in
“Primeval”
“But
Joss
just
keeps
saying,
‘Don’t
worry.
I
have
it
right
here.’”
Sarah
Michelle
Gellar
on
the
filming
of
“Restless”
“You
think
you
know
.
.
.
what's
to
come
.
.
.
what
you
are.
You
haven't
even
begun.”
Tara
(channeling
for
the
First
Slayer)
to
Buffy
in
“Restless”
Dracula
to
Buffy
in
“Buffy
vs.
Dracula”
As
Robert
C.
Allen
has
observed,
“because
of
the
technological
complexity
of
the
medium
and
as
a
result
of
the
application
to
most
commercial
television
production
of
the
principles
of
modern
industrial
organization
[.
.
.],
it
is
very
difficult
to
locate
the
‘author’
of
a
television
program—if
by
that
we
mean
the
single
individual
who
provides
the
unifying
vision
behind
the
program”
(9).
Long
considered
a
producer’s
medium
(see
Newcomb
and
Alley),
television’s
attentive
viewers
may
well
know
of
producers
like
Grant
Tinker,
or
Norman
Lear,
or
Steven
Bochco,
or
Joshua
Brand
and
John
Falsey,
or
Dick
Wolf,
or
Ed
Zwick
and
Marshall
Herskovitz,
or
John
Wells,
though
it
is
doubtful
they
can
name
a
single
writer
or
director
of
(respectively)
The
Mary
Tylor
Moore
Show,
All
in
the
Family,
NYPD
Blue,
Northern
Exposure,
Law
and
Order,
Thirty
Something,
or
ER.
In
the
first
decade
of
a
new
century
it
is
entirely
possible
to
be
a
regular
watcher
of
Boston
Public,
The
Practice,
and
Ally
MacBeal
and
know
nothing
of
David
E.
Kelley;
to
be
a
devout
West
Winger
and
have
never
heard
of
Aaron
Sorkin;
to
be
a
Sopranos
regular
and
be
oblivious
to
David
Chase.
It
is
not
at
all
difficult,
however,
to
locate
the
author
of
Buffy
the
Vampire
Slayer.
As
its
creator,
executive
producer,
writer/co‐writer
of
twenty
two
episodes,
and
director
of
eighteen,
Joss
Whedon
is,
beyond
question,
the
“mad
genius”
(Gellar,
1
“An
Interview”)
of
BtVS. 1
In his ET Online interview, Whedon offers the following account of his
obsessive involvement in the creation of BtVS:
I have control over all the shows. I'm responsible for all the shows.
That means that I break the stories. I often come up with the ideas
and I certainly break the stories with the writers so that we all know
what's going to happen. [. . .] The good thing is that I'm surrounded
by people who are much smarter than I am. So gradually I have been
able to let certain things take care of themselves, because my crew,
my writers, my post-production crew, everybody is so competent, that
I don't have to run around quite as much as I used to.
The Collected Works of David Lavery 2
When
Mim
Udovitch
visited
the
set
of
Buffy
the
Vampire
Slayer
while
writing
a
cover
story
on
the
show
for
Rolling
Stone,
she
learned
that
the
final
episode
of
2
season
four,
then
only
days
away
from
production, was
not
yet
written.
“Like,
in
a
couple
of
days
we
start
shooting
the
last
episode
of
the
season,”
Sarah
Michelle
Gellar
would
observe,
“and
no
one
has
any
idea
what
happens.
But
Joss
just
keeps
saying,
‘Don’t
worry.
I
have
it
right
here’”
(62).
Whedon,
we
learn
later
in
the
article,
had
an
emergency
appendectomy
earlier
in
the
week,
delaying
his
completion
of
the
script
for
the
season
finale.
A
few
days
later
Whedon
had
evidently
3
completed
the
script
for
“Restless”
(4022), and
he
would
also
direct,
for
the
fourth
consecutive
year,
the
season’s
final
episode,
which
would
air
on
May
23.
Confirming
his
injunction
to
his
star
not
to
worry,
“Restless”
turned
out
to
be
a
truly
4
extraordinary
hour
of
television,
a
kind
of
TV
8½, a
postmodern,
self‐referential,
5
diegesis‐bending, hour
that
would
succeed
in
summing
up
BtVS’s
first
four
seasons
and
pointing
to
its
future.
Fans
of
Buffy
(myself
included)
had
been
surprised
to
find
that
“Primeval”
(4021),
1999‐2000’s
penultimate
episode,
had
seemingly
brought
closure
to
the
2
Udovitch’s piece was published in the May 11, 2000 issue of the
magazine, but we know from several references (she refers in the article to
Gellar’s on-set visible scar, acquired in Buffy’s flight from Adam in “The Yoko
Factor” [4021]; she watches the filming of a scene in which Buffy regrets
having studied French instead of Sumerian) that her visit took place during
the filming of “Primeval” (4021), the next to the last episode of season four.
3
We should not find such rapid production in the world of television
that surprising. In an interview with ET Online, Whedon had confessed that
“When we fall behind, which tends to happen, I’ve been known to write a
‘Buffy,’ start to finish, in three days,” and the incredibly prolific David E.
Kelley, who at one point in the 1999-2000 season was writing scripts for Ally
McBeal, The Practice, and Snoops, has been known to write more than one
per week.
4
During the filming of Fellini’s masterpiece, the Italian director had
also deflected the concerns of everyone from his producer to his star,
Marcello Mastroianni, as to whether or not “the maestro” actually knew what
8½ was about. Fellini would, of course, incorporate these doubts into the film
itself, making it in large part a movie about the inability of Guido Anselmi
(Mastroianni—Fellini’s alter ego) to make a movie.
5
Gerald Prince defines “diegesis”—a term now common to the critical
approach usually known as narratology—as “The [fictional] world in which the
situations and events narrated occur” (20).
The Collected Works of David Lavery 3
year’s
story
arcs.
Adam
had
been
vanquished;
the
Initiative
was
no
more;
the
Scooby
Gang
had
ceased
their
backbiting,
overcoming
the
“Yoko
Factor”
and
working
together
more
powerfully
than
ever
before
to
defeat
a
potent
enemy.
But
hadn’t
the
narrative
peaked
too
soon?
To
what
purpose
would
Whedon
dedicate
his
anti‐climatic
season‐ender?
As
Larbalestier
notes
in
this
volume,
“Restless”
“is
not
a
traditional
BtVS
finale
where
the
season’s
villain
is
defeated
as
had
happened
in
each
of
the
previous
finales.”
After
all,
the
Master
hadn’t
killed
Buffy,
opened
the
Hellmouth
and
then
been
staked
by
a
reborn
Slayer
in
the
next‐to‐
last
episode
of
Season
One
but
in
the
last
episode
“Prophecy
Girl”
(1012;
written
and
directed
by
Joss
Whedon).
Angelus'
resurrection
of
Acathla
and
Buffy’s
world‐saving
dispatching
of
her
lover
to
hell
hadn’t
transpired
in
Episode
21
of
Season
Two
but
in
“Becoming”
Part
II
(2022;
written
and
directed
by
Joss
Whedon).
And
the
Mayor’s
Ascension
and
then
immolation
in
the
inferno
of
Sunnydale
High
didn’t
take
place
in
“Graduation
Day”
Part
I
(3021)
but
in
Part
II
(3022;
written
and
directed
by
Joss
Whedon).
But
beyond
the
sense
of
high
expectation
that
having
the
Whedon
stamp
on
it
naturally
inspired,
neither
I
nor
anyone
else
in
BtVS’s
audience
knew
what
we
were
in
for
beyond
an
Internet
rumor,
correct
as
it
turned
out,
that
it
would
be
a
dream
sequence.
Joss
Whedon
had
himself
disclosed
that
much
(in
a
Fanforum
interview):
The
last
episode
is
all
dreams,
and
it’s
just
about
as
strange
as
it
needs
to
be.
It
was
a
very
fun
and
beautiful
way
to
sort
of
sum
up
everything
everyone
had
gone
through,
what
it
meant
to
them
and
where
they
are.
It’s
divided
into
four
acts
that
are
four
dreams:
Giles,
Willow,
Xander
and
Buffy.
We
didn’t
know,
however,
that
each
of
these
dreams
would
in
fact
be
equal
in
style
and
strangeness
and
oneiric
suggestiveness
to
the
famous
“dancing
dwarf”
dream
of
Dale
Cooper
in
the
third
episode
of
Twin
Peaks,
a
series
Whedon
has
often
cited
as
among
his
all
time
favorites.
Exhausted
from
their
final
battle
with
Adam
and
from
the
enjoining
spell
that
made
their
victory
possible,
the
Gang
gathers
at
Buffy’s
house
to
unwind
and
watch
videos.
Before
they
have
finished
even
the
coming
attractions
on
the
first
tape,
they
are,
however,
all
sound
asleep.
Their
dreams,
however,
are
anything
but
sweet,
as
we
learn
by
entering
the
mindscreen
(as
Bruce
Kawin
calls
it)
of
first
Willow,
then
Xander,
Giles,
and
Buffy.
Each
of
the
four
is
stalked
in
turn
by
the
spirit
of
the
First
Slayer.
The Collected Works of David Lavery 4
As
the
Scooby
Gang
wanders
through
their
respective
dream
worlds—as
Willow
struggles
with
her
stage
freight,
fear
of
opera,
doubts
about
her
evolution
beyond
nerd
status
during
a
surreal
performance
of
Death
of
a
Salesman,
worrying
all
along
that
her
secret
will
be
discovered;
Xander
dreams
of
assignations
with
not
only
Willow
and
Tara
but
Buffy’s
mother
and
worries
about
his
future
while
finding
himself
in
the
midst
of
an
Apocalypse
Now
reddux
(Principal
Snyder
as
Kurtz);
Giles
becomes
Buffy’s
father
and
frets
about
the
clash
between
Watcher
duties
and
his
“own
gig,”
merging
the
two
as
he
bursts
into
song
at
The
Bronze
(which
has
merged
with
his
own
livingroom);
and
Buffy
finds
herself
perplexed
by
a
pure‐bureaucratic
Riley
and
a
human
Adam
who
accuses
her
of
being
a
demon,
before
her
own
final
struggle
with,
and
vanguishing
of,
the
First
Slayer,
the
dream
diegesis
merges
with
the
real
set
of
the
Santa
Monica
studio
where
BtVS
is
filmed.
In
one
captivating
tracking
shot
a
fleeing
Xander
runs
from
the
First
Slayer;
the
camera,
in
one
continuous
steadicam
take,
follows
him
into
Giles’
apartment,
through
a
hallway
and
out
into
Buffy’s
dorm,
into
Buffy
and
Willow’s
room,
through
a
closet
into
his
own
dank
basement
apartment,
where
his
stepfather/the
First
Slayer
plucks
out
his
heart.
The
textual
geography
of
the
shot
makes
perfect
dream
sense—
for
in
dreams,
after
all,
are
not
all
places
and
times
contiguous?
But
the
dream
contiguity
of
the
diegesis
of
“Restless”
is
in
reality
the
equally
surreal
contiguity
of
the
extra‐diegetic
actual
television
shooting
set.
Whedon
has
simultaneously
taken
us
inside
the
unconscious
minds
of
the
Scooby
Gang
and
behind
the
scenes
of
a
television
show’s
production.
In
Xander’s
“Restless”
dream,
Buffy
and
Giles
express
their
disappointment
with
Apocalypse
Now,
and
Xander
finds
himself
defending
it.
Then
a
popcorn‐
chomping
Giles
reverses
his
critical
opinion,
announcing
his
sudden
realization:
“I'm
beginning
to
understand
this
now.
It's
all
about
the
journey,
isn't
it?”
Giles’
“this,”
we
may
say,
refers
not
to
Coppola’s
film
but
to
Whedon’s
creation.
The
line
is
not
6
the
only
one
in
“Restless”
that
takes
on
self‐referential
meaning. Even
the
twice
repeated,
first
by
Tara,
then,
in
“Restless’”
last
shot,
in
Buffy’s
own
mind—
6
Another example: in the scene at the Bronze in Giles’ dream, we find
the following exchange:
Willow: Something is trying to kill us. It's like some primal . . .
some animal force.
Giles: That used to be us.
Xander: Don't get linear on me now, man.
The Collected Works of David Lavery 5
“You
think
you
know
.
.
.
what's
to
come
.
.
.
what
you
are.
You
haven't
even
7
begun.” —seems
to
speak
to
not
just
the
destiny
of
Buffy
the
Vampire
Slayer
but
of
Buffy
the
Vampire
Slayer.
Joss
Whedon
has
often
hinted
that
Tony
Head’s
prediction
(that
the
movies
will
steal
him
away
from
TV)
will
prove
correct:
“Ultimately
you
want
to
move
on
from
[TV],”
Whedon
tells
the
authors
of
The
Watcher’s
Guide,
Volume
2.
You
just
want
to
say,
“Okay,
now
I
want
to
do
something
where
I
have
the
time
to
create
everything
that’s
in
the
frame.
Everything.”
And
that’s
sort
of
where
I’m
starting
to
be.
I’m
getting
to
the
point
now
where
I’m
like,
“Okay,
I’ve
told
a
lot
of
stories.
I’ve
churned
it
out.”
I
just
feel
like
I
want
to
step
back
and
do
something
where
I
can’t
use
the
excuse
of
“I
only
had
a
week.”
In
the
same
volume
we
find
Marti
Noxon—one
of
Whedon’s
principal
protégées,
writer
of
(as
of
midway
through
Season
Five)
fifteen
episodes
and
the
only
woman
so
far
to
both
write
and
direct
an
episode
of
BtVS
(“Into
the
Woods”
5010)—admitting
I
don’t
think
Joss
is
gonna
stay
with
the
show
forever.
I
have
very
mixed
feelings
about
what
that
means
for
the
rest
of
us.
Part
of
me
thinks,
“How
can
we
ever
do
this
without
him?
How
could
it
ever
be
what
it
is,
because
it
is
so
much
his
vision.”
(326)
And
yet
in
February
2001
Whedon
signed
a
four
year
production
deal—reported
to
be
th
worth
$20,000,000—to
create
and
produce
new
programs
for
20 Century
Fox
Television
to
develop
ideas
for
television,
so
it
would
appear
that
the
genius
of
Joss
Whedon
will
make
television
its
playground
for
the
foreseeable
future.
Of course there seems little danger of “Restless” itself becoming linear, even
in straight-arrow Giles’ dream segment.
7
In the first episode of Season Five, “Buffy vs. Dracula,” written by
Marti Noxon, Dracula, seeking to convince Buffy that her power is very near
his own, intones the same line to her.
The Collected Works of David Lavery 6
Whedon
once
called
Buffy
“a
show
by
losers
for
losers”
(quoted
at
http://www.crosswinds.net/~tlbin/cast/joss.html),
and
we
understand
what
this
self‐
described
nerd
who
conjured
a
surprising
series
about
outsiders
who
routinely
save
8
the
world
meant. BtVS,
Joyce
Millman
has
observed,
“is
an
ode
to
misfits,
a
healing
vision
of
the
weird,
the
different
and
the
marginalized
finding
their
place
in
the
world
and,
ultimately,
saving
it.”
But
he
certainly
did
not
mean
that
the
series
itself
is
not
about
success.
“As
far
as
I
am
concerned,”
Whedon
admitted
to
Entertainment
Weekly,
“the
first
episode
of
Buffy
was
the
beginning
of
my
career.
It
was
the
first
time
I
told
a
story
from
start
to
finish
the
way
I
wanted.”
But
who
knew
that
Buffy
would
continue
to
evolve
to
become
the
special
creation
it
is
today.
When
Joss
Whedon
previewed
the
“what’s
to
come”
of
Season
Five
to
his
central
cast
and
crew,
Marti
Noxon
was
stunned
“I
think
what’s
going
to
happen
is
going
to
astound
people.
I
was
astounded
when
Joss
told
me.
I
went
‘That
is
unbelievable!’”
(Watcher’s
Guide,
9
Volume
2
326). Now
(I
write
these
words
with
only
six
episodes
to
go
in
season
five,
one
episode
after
one
of
the
entire
series’
finest
episodes,
“The
Body,”
written
and
directed
by
Joss
Whedon)
that
we
know
much
more
about
what
Noxon
heard—that
Buffy
would
suddenly
acquire
a
sister
who
is
in
reality
a
“key”
made
of
pure
energy
given
to
Buffy
for
protection
from
Glory/the
Beast,
an
“ancient
primordial
evil”/god
anxious
to
acquire
its
power—I,
for
one,
believe
her.
I,
for
one,
will
continue
to
root
for
Buffy
the
Vampire
Slayer
and
in
so
doing
sustain
my
faith
in
the
creative
potential
of
television.
8
“I was a pathetic loser in high school and Sunnydale is based largely
on my experience and the experience of other writers who work on the show.
I attended a school in New York for several years (Riverdale) where I
underwent many humiliations and much anxiety and that finds its way into
the series.”
9
Interviewed while filming season five’s finale, Sarah Michelle Gellar
also spoke of “an ending I think nobody will ever expect—and nobody will
believe. Even I couldn't believe it when I read it” (“The Slayer Speaks”).