“The Harvest” picks up right where the pilot episode left off. Buffy saves her friends for the first, but not the last, time, and the gang experiences their first of many losses. The Scoobies rally and use their unique talents to thwart The Harvest and stop (or delay? Hmm…) the Master from being released and bringing about the end of the world.

Tune in for a discussion of this episode, fight choreography, Xander’s toxic masculinity, and how - sometimes - our parents just don’t get it! 

Connect with us on social media!

• Email: tabularasabpod@gmail.com
• Twitter, Instagram, Facebook: @tabularasabpod

Connect with Allie on social media:

• Twitter, Instagram: @Daughterpick
• Tiktok: @futureblackcat
• buymeacoffee.com/AlliePress

Credits

• Hosted by Allie Press & Nick Mercer
• Edited by Allie Press
• Music by InflatonCult
• Artwork by Charlotte Fleming Design
• Consultation by Evo Terra

[Intro Music]

Welcome to Tabula Rasa, B!tches!

[Intro Music]

Hello, hello!

Helloooooooo.

My name is Allie.

And my name is Nick.

And welcome to episode two of Tabula Rasa, B!tches!

We're so glad you are here.

In Tabula Rasa, B!tches!, you'll listen as two decades-long

friends jump back into the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and relive

the show that brought them close together and taught them so many of

the values they still cherish today.

And side note for our friends, we will be discussing this episode spoilers and all.

If you haven't watched yet, and you don't want to hear spoilers, hit the pause

button, go do your watching, come back.

We're going to be anxiously awaiting your return.

Yes.

Each episode of Tabula Rasa, B!tches!, we'll dive into an episode of Buffy

the Vampire Slayer and discuss the lessons that can be learned from our

favorite Sunnydale warriors and the supernatural creatures they use their

talents and friendship to overcome.

Today, we'll be discussing season one, episode two, "The Harvest."

And what an episode it is, Allie.

Let's dive into our episode summary here.

Yeah, let's go for it.

So, this episode picks up right where the last one left off.

So in the cemetery, Buffy beats back Luke and saves Xander and Willow from vampires.

But Jesse, who was with Xander and Willow, is gone.

And we learn that Jesse has been taken to The Master as an offering.

Hearing that they encountered a Slayer, The Master decides to instead use

Jesse as a bait to lure Buffy back.

Buffy goes back to find Jesse and finds Angel who, again, warns about The Harvest.

Against Buffy's instructions, Xander has followed, and they find out

Jesse has been turned into a vampire.

Buffy and Xander make their escape.

The gang learns that that evening is The Harvest when Luke will

funnel energy he gains from killing people to help The Master escape from his prison.

They correctly guess that the vampires will hit up The Bronze

as the site for The Harvest.

Xander saves Cordelia from Jesse and kills him, and Buffy dispatches Luke.

At school the next day, everyone seems to have forgotten or rationalized

what went on the night before.

The Scoobies are officially established and ready to take

on whatever evil comes next.

Man, oh man.

There's a lot there, Allie.

Where should we start?

Well, I had like an overarching idea about this episode when

I was thinking about going into this one.

What's really cool about this one, which it makes sense, it's the second

episode of a series, but this is where, really, it all starts, lots of firsts.

You know, we get Willow researching, we get the Scooby gang

saddling up for the first time.

We see Buffy skipping school and like kinda getting in trouble and stuff.

Um, you know, more quips and awesome - we see a bunch of

like her acrobatics and stuff.

So just like another, it's a very cool, establishing episode, a good

foothold into what's to come, I think.

For sure, we do notice a lot of stuff for the first time.

Um, one of the notes that I have right here at the beginning is, um - I think

that's astute of you, Allie, too.

It really is the first time so many first things happen, which is really cool.

Um, I wrote down, um, the, so we talked about how Buffy very reluctantly

is taking on this Slayer stuff.

She's still not jazzed about it.

She wants to be done with it.

But when she saw that Jesse had been taken, she was so

concerned for her friend.

She was really scared and that was a powerful visual for me.

Oh, I did have a thought, um, kind of harkening

back to our first episode where we talked about how reluctant she is.

She's, you know, very much in denial, even though she packed a stake to go to school.

Um, very in denial of her calling, her destiny, whatever you want to call it.

But what I remembered as I was watching this episode is, if we're

referring to the movie as canon, which I do think certain things are true.

Obviously her, her Watcher died.

Whether we just get that from the fact that like she was able to

move and he didn't move with her or just, you know, watching the

original movie, her Watcher died.

That's huge.

That's huge.

So that can be a, I can understand that being a huge factor in

her reluctance to continue.

Like, I watched this father figure die.

You think I'm just gonna - it's well, and it's kind of like when a new parent comes

in and like, oh, I'm just supposed to like accept you as like this new crucial role?

Oh, you're just going to step in as my new Watcher?

You think you can just do that?

So I can see how she does, she's not jazzed to have this new guy

in her life when so much of this awful history has already happened

in her, like, what, one year?

She was a freshman, I think, when she was called?

And she's only a sophomore now.

So it's only been, she was only a Slayer for a year.

I have a note related to that that will come up later.

But yeah, a note related to this immense amount of death that these

teenagers are experiencing very up close and personally very early on.

But I wonder if you wrote the same thing.

Interesting.

Okay.

So the first note that I have is Angel's cross already saving Buffy.

Um, we end up seeing that cross come up quite a lot.

And like we mentioned in the first episode, not quite sure

how long it sticks around.

It's at least the first three seasons while, while he's in her life.

Um, so yeah, warding off Luke.

It's what keeps her from not dying as the cliffhanger left us.

Um, and then as that fight kind of continues and she's able to get away, the

note, "So glad SMG's fighting got better."

[Nick laughing] It's, it's rough.

I almost wrote down the evolution of Buffy's grunts

and hi-yahs, whatever throughout.

Yeah.

They do get a lot better, don't they?

They do, which I guess, okay.

We did, we did just mention, she's only been doing this for a year.

So, you know, maybe her form isn't the best.

Maybe we can give that to her.

I know part of it was Sarah Michelle Gellar's, you know, uh, newness to

fight choreography and stuff, but oof.

I mean, even just like the way she holds her hands, you can just tell

you're like, mmm, I don't think you're going to throw that punch.

If you do, that's going to hurt.

And I know because I'm a black belt.

No, I'm not.

I'm not.

I'm just joking.

Yeah, but like we know to like, not break your wrist and hold, hold

your thumb a certain way so that you're not like breaking your fingers and stuff.

But a lot goes into form and technique.

And I guess we can, we can give that one to her, like, well, maybe it's Buffy

who's new and not Sarah Michelle Gellar.

And Allie, I know that you are getting more

familiar with fight choreography.

Why is that?

[In a stage whisper] Do the plug now.

Do the plug.

Oh, okay.

Well, for your consideration, Allie Press as Felicia Hardy, the Black

Cat for the Marvel Cinematic Universe - or whoever owns that property.

Cause it might be Sony.

But Sony Pictures, I'm talking to you, too.

Maybe you still continue your flirting relationship with Marvel.

Tom Holland, he's eventually going to need to move on from

Zendaya - Spider-Man/Peter Parker is going to have to move away from MJ.

Because they're so cute.

I'm not interested in breaking them up.

I'm not a homewrecker.

Um, but you know, looking for more content for Disney+?

You're bringing a lot of female characters to Disney+ with SheHulk and Ms.

Marvel and the new Hawkeye, what's one more?

Come on.

No, one's going to stop demanding female leads.

Yeah.

Just take the plunge here.

And we have the perfect female lead right here on this podcast, guys!

Right!

Like you have so many decisions to make in your lives, let me

just make this one for you.

So yes, I am hoping to do more.

There's a lot of fight choreography certifications you can get,

weapons and Stunt School and stuff.

Oh, my god, so many different things.

I wanna do it at all.

Anyway, I am indeed a, uh, superhero in training.

And a, just a super hero in my life.

Awww, you're so sweet.

I'm going to throw up.

Awww.

Oh!

Buffy's resourcefulness.

So she gets out of the, out of the mausoleum and she has to fight the

vamps off of, um, Xander and Willow and she breaks the tree branch.

Like that's dope because, oh, this is another thing it's like, she has

to be resourceful because right now she's leaving her stakes in the vamps.

You'll see later on she stakes and then removes so that

she doesn't lose her stake.

Um, because yeah, how much fucking time must that be sitting at home?

How is Joyce not like what are all these knives doing here?

Just whittling down...

Right, like, Buffy's she's got this great little hobby of whittling.

I don't know what, I don't know.

I remember the first time, Allie, you made me aware of

the difference, the evolution that happens in the seasons of the leaving

the stakes in that then become dust going to what we'll see later, which

is when she just stabs and doesn't - super, super fan for years, you are.

Yuppers.

And they weren't dusting, and you'll see once or twice in these first

couple episodes that there's a vamp that doesn't dust immediately.

Um, that definitely changes.

Um, I feel, I, I want to say I heard in a commentary thing that

it was just a practicality thing of just like, it was so hard always.

And then you're like, you're in the middle of a fight and, what,

there's all these just bodies and tripping hazards and stuff?

Like no, they, they dust and stuff.

Oh!

But I had a note about that of like, it actually does make

sense for vampires to dust.

Kind of.

Like, if you justify like magic and stuff.

So if you, when you kill them, it like kills the demon and stuff and what that's,

what's like keeping them young forever.

So all of that, I don't know, some, some of them live for like

hundreds and hundreds of years.

So all of that age is coming back and you're just dust.

Oh, interesting.

I've never thought about it like that before.

Well, cause there's been other things that I've seen, like I

think Stardust when they've been keeping themselves young with their magic and

stuff, and then whatever that magic is, was like taken away, you see, it's not as

immediate as the dustings of vampires in this, but you see very quickly she ages,

ages, ages, and then it's just like, pfff.

And what's left?

You just become dust.

Yeah.

Just dust.

I feel that.

All we are is dust in the wind.

I love this quote that happens in the next scene from Giles, he's

kind of giving his Vampires/Demons 101 to Xander and Willow and he's talking about

the start of the earth, where he shares that there used to be demons or whatever.

I think I might be butchering it a little bit, but the quote that he says,

uh, he's referencing old earth and he says, "Contrary to popular mythology,

it did not start as a paradise."

And I feel like that was the creators giving a little dunk

really early on, on religion.

Yes.

I actually had that same quote in my notes because there's a lot of things

that I think domino when you find out that certain things are real.

One of the big beefs I had with Twilight, with stupid Bella was that like, once

you find out that vampires are real and you've heard myths of werewolves,

wouldn't you immediately go A+B=C?

And say like, oh, well then, that's obviously real too.

So, if holy water and crosses work to deter demons, then like,

does that mean god is real?

Like, should we be all attending Sunday mass and stuff?

Don't make me.

Please don't make me.

No.

Well, but that's the thing is that like this in a very quick way, if you're not

studying it, like we are, kind of already says like, well not everything's right.

So then you can see where it's like, okay, some things are true, like yes,

demons exist, but like, it's not all true.

There's another note in this scene too, that I feel like does

that same kind of thing where it's setting some boundaries on this world

that we're just getting introduced to when Buffy says, um, the, the quote

is, " As soon as the vampires cleared the graveyard, they could've just voom."

And Xander goes

- Allie & Nick: "They can fly?"

"They can drive."

[Laughter] I love that look on his face, like, oh...yeah, of course.

No, but I like that too, because as soon as like you say, as soon

as you bring in holy water and crosses, what else are you bringing in, too?

And it's just a way that you can kind of ground everything.

Yeah.

And a lot of that, that other vampire mythos will come up much, much later.

So yeah.

Interesting contradiction of the Christian mythology.

Um, I want Xander's mushroom shirt.

I made a few fashion notes.

I didn't, I didn't detect his mushroom shirt.

I'll have to watch it again.

It's bright green!

It's in that same scene we've been talking about.

Um, and what's interesting is when you say that, like she's so sassy,

sassy about not believing in vampires, because it's just give a little sass

of like what her first reaction was.

And it's like, okay, now that I know more about rabies and actually what

it does to a human, when it gets really bad, if it goes untreated, that

actually is a very valid explanation.

You can legit lose your mind and you're foaming at the mouth and

your face is all scrunched up and you're just angry and deranged.

And you're like hallucinating and stuff.

Sure, if I, if it was dark and you know, I was in like trauma and, you know, I was

in shock and stuff like I could buy that.

I could buy rabies.

That's funny, I just had that same experience today, but it was

after I got a particular email from work.

And I don't think that it was rabies related, but that's good to know

that it can look a lot like...

Oh, it's, it's bad.

There was an episode of Criminal Minds where someone's like giving people rabies.

It's bad.

Very rude.

It's, it's a horrible disease and it's actually still to this

date, one of the oldest diseases and one of the deadliest because if you are not

treated in the first like 24 hours or 36 hours or something like that after

exposure , the only conclusion is death.

[Nick gasp] Outside of that window, they can make you comfortable.

That's it.

I just Googled rabies and I feel like that's a mistake.

I feel like I shouldn't Google image rabies.

I'm not going to, I'm going to click away.

I mean, if you're up to your shot up, up-to-date on your

shots and your dogs are up to date on your shots, and then you're fine.

If you don't like go crash a dog fighting ring or something

like that, you should be fine.

Not today.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Don't take any, uh, in any wild animals and you'll be fine.

Oh, speaking of some sass, uh, I love, Giles is about to launch

into the "Into each generation a Slayer is born, she alone..."

and Buffy goes, "Oh, he loves this part."

[Nick laughs] And he's like, "All right.

The Slayer hunts vampires.

Buffy's the Slayer.

Don't tell anyone."

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's so good.

Uh, yeah, the Buffy sass is good.

She, her quips are just, I want to be clever like she is.

Right?!

I, um, I had a question.

I, I, there just comes a part, it's not a question.

There just comes a part where I have to suspend my disbelief a little bit.

But when Xander says, oh, there's an electrical tunnel

running underneath the city.

I had that same thought of like, who would know that?

Yeah.

You have a remarkable grasp on the infrastructure in your town, Xander.

I mean, maybe if we lived in that small of a town,

there's things you just know?

Like maybe there's people who go hang out in the tunnels?

I, I don't know.

I, again, that is one of the justifications I can give of like, there's

a lot I don't know about small town life.

So, I dunno, maybe.

Maybe.

Who knows.

I'm not, I'm not mad about it.

I just

- Allie Press: But I definitely had that

that there are electrical tunnels?

Right.

Why, why in the world he know that?

Uh, this next scene, I feel like I need to pour one out for the

incredible set that is The Master's lair.

So creepy, I think just so well done.

And it is, The Master is scary.

He's scary.

Oh yeah.

Oh, I had that as a note of like, just how much blood does one have to suck to

have permanently stained their mouth?

That is so much!

That's a lot of fucking blood!

That's a lot of blood or his lips are really chapped.

Mmmmmm, I feel like it's supposed to be the blood.

You think it's the blood?

I think you're probably right.

It's supposed to be - uh, yeah, I think that's what I think that's

the conclusion we are meant to draw.

I'm like, do you want some Vasoline or something?

Some Carmex?

I don't know, is there not a pocket in that tunic you have?

I'll even give you, I'll splurge for Burt's

Bees for you there, buddy.

So another time where I feel like I had to, I suspended my disbelief, which I'm

fine because it's for Willow and I would die for Willow, but when she says- and

I think this was a very 90s trope, 90s thing to do when Willow goes, "Oh yeah, I

accidentally decrypted the city council's security" - What does that mean?

I think, I think now we know enough about tech and stuff to be like, you just lumped

some words there that doesn't actually.

I don't know, I'm not mad about it.

I'm not mad about it.

I just, again, chuckled to myself.

It's also one of those things that's like, if you dive

too far into like, well, what was her goal that led to her decrypting

the city council security system?

Like what did she want to see in the city council?

Like, is she some social justice warrior and she wanted to like,

see what they were voting on?

Like that's not a side of Willow we see, so what was your goal?

How did you end up stumbling there?

Or did you just

- Nick Mercer: Yeah, Willow,

Right, cause she's not a bad girl.

So certainly at this phase of her life, she wouldn't have been like,

let me just see if I can hack this or like the same way that like some

klepto would be like, let me just see if I can steal this for fun.

Like, I don't know why.

I just, yeah.

That's why we don't dissect things.

Yup.

Good point.

Um, oh yeah, that, that Xander quote.

Yeah, give the context for this quote, Allie.

As a man, I'm not going to.

Oh, oh yeah.

So, Buffy says that he can't come along with her because he wants

to, and he was like, "That's fine.

I'm inadequate.

That's fine.

I'm less than a man."

And it's like, well, you don't have super strength.

So I don't know.

Suck it up.

Yeah, Xander, this isn't about you right now.

Take your toxic masculinity out of here, dude.

I don't have time for it.

I know.

He lets it, he does pretty much let it go.

But, uh, I also like, if you think about the things that you were

sensitive about as a high schooler...

If he's still whining about that into his thirties, different issue.

But I can see at 16, when this girl who's like a foot shorter than you, you know.

Oh, and to be clear, I am still a little bitch

about - get my feelings all up in a tizzy about stupid things.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Of course.

Maybe that's why, maybe that's why I picked up on it so quickly

is because I, I saw, Nick, you're a little bit, he's being a little bitch,

tell him to stop being a little bitch.

And it's easier to notice that stuff in others.

I think we are particularly attuned to things like toxic masculinity

and these kinds of things.

Like, I definitely noticed a lot more, I'm going to have to spend a

lot of disbelief with, with everything with Angel because just like his

crypticness and lack of communication.

And I'm just like, why don't you just come out and say it?

But at least she recognized it.

She's like, "You show up here with your cryptic wise man act.

Can I at least know your name?"

So I love that she is, she's not letting him off the hook.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

I think that's important.

Yeah, I do, I do like that.

Yes, Buffy, call him out.

Cause he is being cryptic and weird.

Why-

Well, and I think some, we learn more about this

character that he's kind of been in love with Buffy for a long time.

And so I do think, cause I have this note of his contradiction of when he's like,

you don't want to go down there, but then he also is warning her about The Harvest,

presumably so that she can stop it.

It's not like he's telling her to leave town and escape The Harvest.

So that's kind of confusing.

So I'm like, is it, is he testing her?

But it could also just be his feelings of yeah, I think you're, you know, you're

the Slayer, you should stop The Harvest.

It's bad.

It'd be a bad thing if The Harvest should happen, but also like,

wait, oh no, don't, that's danger.

I don't want you to get hurt.

Don't go there.

So...

Probably a little complicated.

Yeah, cause humans are complicated.

You know, double think happens all the time.

Yeah, I want you to be like your big, bad self, but also like, let me protect you.

I...

feel that.

That makes sense to me.

"Angel is so hot."

Yeeaahhh he really is.

This note that I had, this note that I wrote for myself is great.

I want to read it to our amazing viewers.

Yeah, please read it.

I wrote, "Angel is so hot.

And kind of a dick, and so hot."

[Laughing] And then I wrote, "I feel like I don't understand why

he's not being at all helpful," but we just talked about that.

But yeah, yeah, dude is soooo sexy, ohmygod.

Yeah, and there definitely is like a lot of, I guess goes back to

his infatuation with Buffy, maybe it's a little Edward Cullen-ish of I have to be

standoffish otherwise I will be so in love with her and I'll never leave her side.

But like also we have no future, so I shouldn't get involved, but I

don't want to see her get hurt....

and it's just this ring of complicatedness.

I'm so excited to fully process their confusing

relationship with you, Allie.

That is sweet at the core of it, but is also deeply problematic,

especially when we look back now.

Like age difference and stuff, but you know what,

that's not unique to Buffy.

That is a vampire thing, trope thing, and you just have to set

that aside if you're going to enjoy any kind of vampire romance.

Well, even if he were, even if he were a

human, it would still be gross.

Cause she's a sophomore in high school and he's like 26?

Yeah, she talks about him as if he's a community college student.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I find myself needing to, needing to, if I adjust their ages across

the board in my head, then it's fine.

Yes, but I also know myself, I was crushing on older guys.

I wouldn't have put up a fight if some hot community college

guy was showing me attention.

And again, that's not on the younger person, but still like, "not right."

it's definitely one of the things of like, okay, well come see me back

in five years and then that's okay.

Also, you know, in high school, age gaps, like one year is

so long for a high schooler.

You know, that freshman year to senior year seems like an insurmountable gap.

And then you're all graduated from college and stuff and

four years seems like nothing.

You're practically the same age.

But anyway, moving on, getting back on topic, steering back towards stuff.

[Nick chuckles] But still on Angel, I have a quote written down, "Awkward - 'That

wasn't to be supposed to be a stumper.'" She's like, "I have a friend down there.

Maybe a friend.

Do you know what it's like to have a friend?"

And he just kind of stares at her.

SAVAGE!

"That wasn't supposed to be a stumper."

Ooooohhhhhh.

So, I remember I have a, I have a recent, this is

another one of those lines that I've bastardized and adopted for my own use.

I remember during the presidential debates - Are we allowed to get political?

Can we get, we can get political, right?

Sure.

Right, yeah, it's our podcast.

It's our podcast.

We can say whatever we want.

During the presidential debates when, um, I think the

question to Trump was like, will you condemn white supremacy or something,

and he just straight up didn't.

Multiple times, he didn't.

I remember I was talking to my dad afterwards and my dad - anytime my dad

and I are on the same page politically, something has gone way off the rails.

Either the other side is so nuts that it has driven up - I don't know.

Whatever.

But I remember saying to my dad, "Dad, that question isn't

supposed to be a stumper."

[Laughter]

Right, like that's supposed to be a gimme.

Even if you're lying...

lie better.

Lie for, lie for longer.

Yeah, yeah.

That was, yeah, yeah.

By any, any way you think about it, that question is supposed

to be a pretty easy one.

It's not supposed to be a stumper.

No, that should've been a softball.

Uh, no, and it's funny you talking about like, not getting political when I'm

wearing my The Future is Female crewneck

- Nick Mercer: I just

And under it, you can't see it cause it's fucking cold in my

house, um, I'm wearing the shirt you got me that says Slut for Justice.

[Dramatic sigh], sigh we are all sluts for justice

here at Tabula Rasa, B!tches.

Did you see?

I'm wearing my Buffy cross.

I did saw, I did see your Buffy cross, too.

Lookin gorg as always.

Yeah, so I'm looking, my outfit is, um,

what, what did the kids say?

Snatched?

[Big laughter]

Ahhh, that was good.

That wasn't supposed to be as big a joke.

Aright, we have our episode clip, our little teaser clip.

Yeah, there we go.

So you wanted to talk about The Master?

He's such a good bad guy.

Yeah, ugh, he is such, he's just a brilliant bad guy.

When he says, um, he's mocking the one vampire who failed him in some way.

I forget how he failed, but he says, he says, "Apologize

to me," and he apologized.

And he says, "There, that's not so bad, was it?"

And then he stabs him in the eye!

Ooh!

So good.

"Wait, you've got something in your eye."

Yeah.

I love, I love that.

And that's kind of a, um, I think a, I don't want to say trope - archetype!

In literature and stuff, the sort of genteel villain.

And I love that.

I always, that's like they're sinister, but they're like charming?

So it throws you off balance, but that just, but their charm makes

them even more evil and scary.

And I love that.

The air of properness makes them even more dangerous.

Um, while I was, uh, Googling stuff for this episode, I found a note that,

apparently, He Who Must Not Be Named because he's a giant dick bag, creator,

writer, whatever, [whispers] Joss Whedon.

I'll only say his name once this episode.

Um, he felt bad for all of the lines The Master had where he had ss in it

because the prosthetics of the face or whatever made it really hard.

I just thought it was a neat little tidbit.

I do, I love those tidbits.

Those are always so interesting to me.

So, uh, my next note is, uh, it's the next scene, and this is

what we started to talk about earlier.

They just found out their friend is for sure dead.

Not only dead, but came back as a vampire, which is the worst thing, whatever.

And they're not, maybe they are traumatized, but they

just have to keep moving?

But I'm just thinking to myself, what happens to me in an average day if I run

out of coffee creamer, [Chuckles] and then compare that to if my friend just died!

Okay, but I see it as they're in shock.

So I don't think they know how to process that he's like gone

because physically he's still there.

He still has, has his face.

He still has his memories.

Um, and that comes back later when they're saddling up to head to The Bronze,

when he's like "And Jesse's in there."

And Giles has to go, "That is not Jesse.

Your friend is dead.

When you go in there, that is not your friend.

That is the monster that killed him wearing his face."

Or something like that.

Giles says it better than I do when I'm paraphrasing.

But, I do think that's understandable and I do think there is a certain

amount of where you, you have to have some levity or like...

There's certain playwrights that have this, the characters feel

strongly, but they don't feel deeply.

Like if you think of it wide versus vertical or something like that.

Because think about it, like, us knowing, and again, because of our sensibilities

in terms of political and social and stuff like that, we know about trauma.

We know what trauma does to people.

We know the horrors of PTSD and those kinds of things.

Is that the show you want to watch where they're all acting like realistically?

No, that sounds not entertaining at all.

Not in the first season.

I don't, I don't think I want to see them actually traumatized.

That would, that'd be kind of awful.

Yeah, that would be sad.

I mean, later we said that once we've, once we've sat with

these characters for a while and then, and then we get into deeper storylines

and that kind of thing, but...

And that kind of plays into that whole, you can't un-know things,

so why she could never actually stop being the Slayer because it's

like, well, I'm already traumatized.

I know these things.

I can't just go lalala this doesn't happen.

You know, you'd have to wipe your memory or some kinda thing.

They feel strongly, not deeply.

I really like that.

Yeah, that's what, I had a professor tell me that

about , uh, Oscar Wilde characters.

Like they get upset about things, but it doesn't, it doesn't go that

deep, everything's surface level.

Neato.

Well, excited to explore more.

I like Giles's cardigan.

Cute.

Oh yeah.

Uh, Giles is not only wearing a great cardigan.

I'm wearing a cardigan right now, listener friends who can't - god, I love cardigans.

Giles also has a very sensible pinky ring

- Allie Press: Cardigans are delightful.

which I appreciate.

So I see in your notes, you're jumping towards her sneaking out

to saddle up to go fight The Harvest.

Uh, but you're skipping over the amazing scene in the computer lab where

we meet Harmony for the first time!

She's not even introduced with her name, but, um, Willow is researching

earthquakes and shit, and Cordelia is working on a programming thing.

And she starts talking about Buffy and like the stuff before.

And Willow's like, "She's not a psycho."

And possibly my favorite line of this episode, "Excuse me, who

gave you permission to exist?"

[Nick laughing] Cordelia Chase.

You are such a bitch.

I love you!

I LOVE her!

I do, I love her.

Um, and then I do love Willow's little slight back when Cordelia's

like, okay, then we end run, or we, where do we submit?

And then Willow goes, "Deliver."

And so she finds the D-E-L key and she deletes her whole program.

Ha ha ha haaaaa.

So good.

And I love that Willow probably, I, I don't know, but I can't imagine

if they had been shit talking Willow in front of her she'd do that.

Willow sabotaged Cordelia and her stupid project because they were

talking shit about Willow's friend.

I agree.

I agree.

Yeah, she doesn't stand up for herself, but like you came at my friend.

Who, by the way, is trying to save - um - the world, so.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Take several seats, Ms.

Chase.

But also keep it up with your iconic lines because they're great.

Yes, exactly.

Like leave, but like, don't leave.

Just like stay forever.

She, over the course, and maybe once we're through all seven seasons, maybe

we'll continue with a side Angel thing.

Cause just Cordelia Chase's journey is fucking amazing.

Ugh it's so goood.

Shout out to Charisma Carpenter.

You're a goddess.

I love you.

Uh, you're more beautiful every day.

You're more beautiful than Cinderella.

You have a face like sunshine, and you smell like pine needles.

Um, maybe Charisma Carpenter will join us for an episode.

Let's manifest it.

[Whispers] I love yoouu.

And then she can bring her bestie Julie Benz because

apparently they're super close.

We have a whole plan now.

That's great.

I have all the plans.

Are you kidding me?

Great.

Oh, random thing, I just love when title sequence

stuff pops up in the episode.

Yeah!

We see one of em!

Oh, we see a bunch of them.

There's the hand shooting [out], there's them walking out of the

library, there's the moon rising.

There's a lot of good ones in this, um, in this one.

There's the, uh, shutting the door on the, the big

metal door when they're trying to escape from Jesse and them.

Yeah, the hand grabbing?

I love that.

Um, a great quote when they encounter Jesse, "I can hear

the worms in the earth."

Xander's "That's a plus."

Yeah [laughing].

"That's a plus."

Xander, you're so awkward.

I love you.

It's just like I don't know what you're supposed

to say to that, but ok...

I really liked this next scene between Buffy and her mom.

Oh yeah.

Uh, poor Joyce.

I have a big note, I have a big asterix on that, of like, poor Joyce.

Because what...

what would Buffy even say to her?

Like other than, other than telling the truth.

Yeah, Joyce makes, into season, further into season one

and then into season two, I start having serious issues with some

of the choices that Joyce makes.

But this one, yeah, she's right.

If my daughter's new principal just called me that she was skipping

school and now she's trying...

Right!

Absolutely not you're going out!

Right.

Or you're not going - no!

Not a chance.

Right, like, what else would it, what else would you say?

And then she, in a very excellent parenting move, she says, "If

you want to stay up here and sulk I won't hold it against you."

Uh-plause!

Mom!

Well, well handled.

And she's like, "But, if you want to come down and have some

dinner, I'll make us some dinner."

I love that.

That's such a sweet, she's just the best, the best mom.

But then it's also so hard on Buffy cause what is she supposed to do?

Not go save the world?

Right.

Like, oh, okay, I'm grounded.

Guess I won't...go kill vampires.

And that line from Buffy or from her mom, I think,

I, yeah, I do have it here.

Um, Buffy goes, "This is really, really important."

And her mom says, "I know, if you don't go out, it'll be the end of the world."

And the audience is like, yes!

YES!

It will be!

Dramatic irony.

But is that, is that not so, I mean, take the fact that it's actually

will be the end of the world out of it.

That feeling that my parent doesn't get it.

This is really important.

I have to, I have to go to this party or this, whatever.

I can really relate to that feeling of my parents just not getting it.

Right.

Oh, absolutely.

And there's, everything, it does feel like the end of the world.

Like, especially in middle school and also in high school and stuff,

everything feels just like a big deal.

Sometimes I miss school because everything felt like a thing, you know?

Like there was someone there to see your outfit and people to talk

about your crushes with and...

I don't know.

There were school dances.

There were these events that just felt like such a big fucking deal.

And they were!

To us, at that time, they were big deals.

And that kind of pulls into that metaphor - I mean, it's very real to

Buffy in the literal context, but also that, like, metaphorical side of Buffy.

Uh.

Well done writers, well done.

Um, as she's preparing for, she says, sorry, mom, going anyways, peace out.

She opens the trunk and there's the, whatever girly stuff in

the top that she takes out.

Oh, I love that, I love that juxtaposition.

Ah, what a great reveal.

All of her like dolls and, I don't know, lacey things and whatever pink stuff, like

you said, girly stuff on the top tray.

How indicative of Buffy as the character.

She's one way on the outside, then you dig a little deeper...

And it's all stakes and communion wafers.

There are for sure communion wafers.

Oh yeah.

Which, uhhh...

I mean, they're holy, they're blessed.

If holy water works, there's no reason...

Ooohhhhhh...

...communion wafers shouldn't work.

That just occurred to me.

I thought that was just an LOL let's throw religious shit in here as the

- Allie Press: I mean, it never comes up.

It's never used.

Garlic is in it, too.

And I don't think garlic comes up as another determinant to vampires.

No, I mean, they, they list it when Xander's like, okay, so what else?

Stake, stake through the heart, beheadings, what else?

Garlic, you know.

Which again, why garlic?

I understand the religious stuff.

But why garlic?

That never comes up, either.

Um, but they do talk about hallowed ground.

Um, like that's a thing, hallowed ground and like cemeteries and stuff like that.

So, but also like, but they hang out in cemeteries.

So are mausoleums not...?

Okay, well, that's a, that's a plot hole.

Let's not pick at that scab.

[Nick Laughs]

Let's not pull that thread.

Put it in the basement!

Put in the basement.

Yeah, let's not pull that thread.

Ooh, say that next note after the communion bread.

Cause I have an answer to that.

So, okay.

So the next scene is they're in The Bronze.

Our superheroes are headed to The Bronze, but Jesse is there already.

And there's this, in the first episode we saw human Jesse try

and dance with Cordelia and she immediately brushed him off.

And this time as a vampire, he tries again.

But naturally, he doesn't have a soul, he's a lot more forward.

He kind of just goes up and presses himself against her and starts dancing.

And she's like, nope, no, I'm not.

And then he says, shut up.

And she says, okay, fine, one dance.

And I, it sounds like you might have a, have a good answer for it.

I do.

But it didn't sit right with me because I don't love, I'm

trying to see what, what message they're trying to send by him

having success by being mean to her.

So, first of all, you're exaggerating a little bit with

him, like pressing up against her.

He, he is, I mean, he's standing close, but he does grab her hand

and pull her to the dance floor.

It's not like he immediately shoves his crotch on her crotch.

Well, no, I didn't mean that...

I know, but like, it's, you know, words have meaning.

It is presumptive.

He is being very presumptuous.

Yes, he's being, he's being assertive.

And as far as the shut up, Cordelia, who always comes from a place

of power, that is the kind of attitude she would, like, respect.

Or maybe not respect, but would respond to because someone who

comes at a girl like her with weaker energy, she's not gonna respond.

She's gonna step all over you.

And also this goes to the, you know, why, why is Angelus

hotter than Angel and stuff?

Because confidence is sexy.

What did he lack?

He was a shy, awkward nerd.

So when he comes at her like, of course you want to dance with me or like, I'm

not going to take no for an answer...

That is something that - C'mon, every girl loves a bad boy.

It's not a good thing.

Yeah.

But like, we have that thing, I'm not saying everybody,

but people like a bad boy.

Now, it does kind of turn that corner when he is about to kill her.

Cause he does have some, like, I wanted to write down the language,

but it's stuff like, I don't know, she's trying to get him off her.

He said

something like"Thiss one is mine" or, and then, and then

there's another line he's like, you're making this harder than it...

like something like that.

Yeah.

And again, if we're, you know, a vampire bite is very sexual.

So then when he is literally on top of her and trying to force

himself on her, that is very rapey.

That turns the corner.

But as far as him like approaching her and the dance and stuff, I

think that is something that, that Cordelia Chase would respond to.

Ahhhh...Well and, like, she did respond to it.

Right.

She did dance with him.

So I guess it worked out, but I just don't love that, I don't know, some

teenage dude might be watching this and be like, oh, well I just have to tell

the girl who's telling me "No, I don't want to dance with you" to shut up.

And then she'll...

But it's also, it's not like he yelled at her.

It was - Cause tone, cause tone affects things, too.

Like, I, I don't, [pensive sigh] there's a way to be, I don't want to say playful.

Playful is not quite the right word.

And I'm not saying you should tell people to shut up.

Yeah, you're saying he wasn't, yeah, you didn't feel like there

were lines crossed in that particular

- Allie Press: He didn't come over and say,

Yeah.

So, backtracking a teeny bit, um, Cordelia's quote.

"When I go shopping, I have to have the most expensive thing.

Not because it's expensive, but because it costs more."

I actually love this line because I actually think it makes perfect sense.

It doesn't make any sense and you're wrong.

Yes, it does!

Because it's not like expense as in monetary, as in like the number of

dollars, but cost as in the effort that, I had to put in more effort to get this.

Versus I have more dollars than you do.

I don't think that that's what Cordelia meant.

I don't quite necessarily think she's thinking of

it deep either, but I don't know.

I've always heard that line and go, like, I don't know.

It kind of makes sense to me.

I love that, I love later on in that exchange where

she's, you know, she's been the only one in this little aside that's been

talking and then one of the other girls she's with tries to get in.

"Uh, excuse me, Ms.

Motormouth, can I get a word in?"

[Nick laughing] Oh, Cordelia.

Ah, you're so good.

"Ms.

Motormouth..."

Yeah.

Love that.

Also, Cordelia Chase in that scene before she gets approached by Jesse, when

they're just dancing to like the upbeat song, she defined cool dancing for me.

Hmmm.

She is a cool dancer.

She's sexy too.

Yup.

Yup.

I mean, she was cast for a reason.

Yeah.

Get it, Cordelia.

I want to be like you when I grow up.

Cordelia screams like Sailor Moon.

I don't remember if you watched Sailor Moon, but when she's grabbed by Luke,

that's exactly what that sounds like.

That is funny.

I haven't paid attention to that.

Um, the, "You didn't think I'd miss this, did you?"

When, uh, Buffy appears on the balcony , that always rings in my head because that,

I don't know if you remember the DVD box sets, when you would select from the, from

the menu, you would select the episode, it would play a quote from that episode.

And so for this episode, that was the quote.

" You didn't think I had missed this, did you?"

And then the episode would start.

That's so funny.

A call back to the title screen of sorts.

Yeah, exactly.

I love the, I think this is an iconic Buffy line.

Right before she goes to kill Luke, she goes, "Here's

something you forgot about, too.

Sunrise."

Finish the quote, Allie.

[Allie mockingly imitates Luke's painful cries.]

"It's in about nine hours, moron."

[Laughing] Luke, you're so dumb.

I do have that moment when he...And I don't know, do

vampires have those kinds of moments where you react before your

actual physical stimulus is there?

But he's like, ah, and then he like actually has that moment of wait...

I don't hurt.

Yeah.

You're stupid.

Do you feel...

there's that TikTok sound right now going around that's like, "Do you feel...

stupid?

Do you feel a little absurd?"

That is Luke.

Uh, as they, as everybody's fleeing The Bronze,

Buffy has saved the day - congrats, Buffy - and then we see Angel.

And I know jury's still out, he's still making some decisions, probably

feeling a lot of big feelings himself.

But, like, thanks for the help, dude.

Really appreciate it.

Could've used you here.

Well...did they need him?

Well, no, they weren't, you know, they worked it out.

I think Xander handled himself particularly

- Allie Press: Xander handled

Like he didn't mean to kill his friend, but

he went through a lot of stuff

- Allie Press: [Whispering] And

It would not have actually killed him.

Um, cause later it does come up, like, aiming, but at least in this,

they were not very particular.

That stake would not have dusted him.

Yeah, that stake in the collarbone is not gonna do much.

Yeah, exactly.

That would have hit, like, his breastbone, would not have gone in.

Um, but see, and this is a different, maybe I'm going to be the optimist

for this show because the way I saw Angel with like the damn she did it.

He came, but wasn't going to step in if he wasn't needed.

I saw

- Nick Mercer: Oooooohhhhhh

I saw that as like him letting her do her thing and like, yeah,

I'm not going to let The Harvest happen.

If it looks like she's - like, if Luke

- Nick Mercer: Allie, I like that more.

I like that a lot.

Yeah.

So I saw that as him holding back and letting her be a badass woman

and being like, I'm impressed, but

- Nick Mercer: He was ready.

He could've if he needed, but not needed.

Right.

Exactly.

Yeah.

You're right.

I think you're right!

He was still keeping tabs and keeping an eye.

He showed up.

Yup.

That wasn't him like later being like, oh, well

today, tomorrow still came.

So I guess she won.

Yup.

Yup.

That's how I saw it.

Yeah, he was, he was ready.

He was more active and ready to be helpful if need be.

I like the way you think, Allie.

I really do.

Well, well, I am still Team Angel, so.

I know there's some, some Team Spike fans out there, but

- Nick Mercer: Yeah, I was, we'll, we'll

The, uh, last, this gets into our favorite quotes here a little bit.

And you can see, what is my last quote?

Allie is holding her notes up to the camera right now.

So I see, we both have it at the same time.

Allie, we'll say it at the same time.

Ready?

1, 2, 3!

"The earth is doomed."

Oh, Giles.

Uh, I love that.

"Maybe I could still get kicked out of school."

That whole last conversation is fantastic where they're like, oh

yeah, you could blow something up.

They really frown on that.

[Nick laughs] Um, what of your, what are some other

quotes, have we missed any of your other favorite quotes so far, Allie?

Oh yeah, so what I starred as potentially my favorite quote because it's

just, oh, it's so epic in the way that like only The Master could deliver it.

Um, "Tonight I shall walk the earth and the stars themselves will hide."

That is such a good line, isn't it?

Ooh!

Okaaay!

Poetic and scary.

Okay.

I see you, I see you, bad guy.

[Nick chuckles] Did you, did you have a degree in English?

You do, don't you?

Look at you!

That was nice.

You speak fancy like you're educated.

Um, I wrote down one of Giles's lines that still resonates

with me to this day, as he is telling Willow how she can be helpful.

Um, he is talking about how he's fuzzy on some of the details about

The Harvest, and he says, "I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details.

Maybe you can wrestle some information out of this dreaded machine."

And that aversion to computers, I'm, I just get it.

Hits you on a personal level?

Yeah, it does.

That's funny because I pulled out the quote right after

that, which is, "That was a bit...

British, wasn't it?"

[Laughs] Yes, it was, and we love you for it.

Just a little, Giles, just a little.

Uh, I think those are all my quotes.

I think we hit them as we went through, Allie.

Yeah, for the most part.

Uh, " She walks free when I should be drinking her heart's blood?"

And I just had a moment of...

that's how I feel about my ex.

[Nick laughing]

Like you're just out there walking around, like

not paying for your crimes?

THE audacity.

The AUDACITY.

The audacity.

The audacity.

When I should be drinking your heart's blood.

Um, Xander's, "I don't like vampires.

I'm going to take a stand and say, they're not good."

I love that.

Well done.

Good, good move, Xander.

Take that stand.

I have, uh, "That's the Buffy Summers I want in my school, sensible

girl with her feet on the ground."

Aww, Principal Flutie.

Ch-koo!

Yup!

Haha

She jumps right up, clears the fence.

Yeah, I am, I am a sucker for some dramatic timing.

I love that.

Aw, Principal Flutie.

I love Principal Flutie.

You'll learn more viewers, listeners!

You'll leaarrn.

He is, he's a good egg.

He's trying so hard.

He is.

He cares.

Um, I have one from Luke, " Actually, there is cause for

alarm, it just won't do you any good."

Mmm.

Sass.

And, and that timing too, it's right as he's talking, he gets like

a spotlight on his face so as he says it will do you no cause, you no, whatever,

uh, you see his face for the first time.

Or, I guess the people in The Bronze see his face for the first time.

That's another good timing.

Yuup.

That's all my quotes.

What do you think for the moral of the story?

What's the moral of this episode?

I have one, but if you don't agree, you can give your own.

I think there might be kind of a corny one in teamwork or

friendship or that kind of thing.

Because that's kind of her, I mean, yes, save the world.

Like that would be bad and all that, but really her big, Buffy's big motivation for

jumping back in the saddle is these new friends or these new potential friends.

These look like people who seem to care about me and heard that

I say I'm a Slayer and didn't run away and are sticking around.

They come back the next day to school.

After they all narrowly escaped vampires, they still all gather in

the library the next day, rather than avoiding her, calling her crazy.

I mean, clearly these aren't that kind of people, which is why they become friends.

But, you know, she doesn't know, that's not how other people would've reacted.

Yeah, it's powerful.

And you know, she, I think, I think at one point they're talking about where

are they going to go for The Harvest, oh who knows or whatever, and it's

Xander who says, Jesse is going to The Bronze, I guarantee you he's going.

So not only are there all of these great notes about how probably healing it is

for Buffy to have a group of friends and all of this stuff, but they literally

substantively help her, which is cool!

They're just normies.

Well, and it's, um, Willow who finds - well, Xander, we talked

about, knows about the electrical tunnels.

Willow who finds the city blueprints, which we see go under the mausoleum and

that's how Buffy is able to be like, oh, the entrance is in the mausoleum.

And then it's Giles who finds out about The Harvest and does the

research and finds out about the vessel so she knows who to attack.

So it really is a team effort.

Go team.

Teamwork really does make the dream work.

The moral that I thought might apply, and I think there can probably be

multiple lessons learned from this, but, um, I wrote that life goes on.

And what I mean by that is like how we talked about they found out their friend

just died this horrible death then came back as a vampire, like life goes on.

And at the end of the episode, when we see everybody trying to rationalize

what happened the night before.

And they have that exchange about how Buffy and Giles are basically

like, yeah, they're going to do that.

They're going to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't

and whatever, off to the next thing, which is a theme I think we'll see.

Oh yeah.

Well, and there's that, there's that great Cordelia moment where she's like, "And

Buffy like knew them, which was so weird."

And her friend's like, "Wow, I wish I'd been there."

And she's like, "You should have been there."

Yeah, Cordelia has managed to make it fit

whatever her preconceived, right?

Oh yeah!

Well, cause, cause it's a story.

Everybody loves a good story and it's definitely going to be one of

those, like, where-were-you moments.

There's a lot, we find out that a lot of those happen in Sunnydale, which I think

comes to you kind of get used, you can get used to anything, even if it's trauma.

Because again, everything is subjective.

So Sunnydale High ends up having a very high mortality rate.

And that's just like, I don't know.

Did, was, did not a lot of people die at your high school?

That's how my high school was.

Speaks to the resilience of the human condition.

You don't, you don't know what you don't know or like you

don't know what's - you kind of grow up assuming like, oh, well this is

what it's like for everybody, right?

Normal is kind of a moving point for people.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Normal's definitely subjective or relative or whatever.

I like the way you think.

Do you want to wrap this episode up, Allie?

Yeah, Miss Buttercup, let's wrap this motha up.

Apparently, Joss Whedon wanted to include Eric Balfour, Jesse, in the opening

credits to shock people when he died, but he couldn't because of funding.

Iiiiiinteresting.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't, I missed that one.

Yeah.

Yeah, isn't that nifty?

He wanted to, so in the opening credits, he wanted Jesse's character featured

as one of the, you know, whatever so that people would be like, what?

He already killed off a main character?

Changing your title sequence is very expensive.

So if you ever are watching

- Nick Mercer: I didn't know that!

It is.

Like, just editing.

Everything's fucking expensive.

Everything is time.

Everything is money.

Things that look simple are not.

Um, so if you ever, if you're ever watching a series and they do things

like changing up their title sequence more than just like per season, that's

how you know they're doing really well.

Like the Psych series, um, a few seasons, and actually not even that late

in, they start changing up the title sequence, or the, um, the theme song.

So like there's one that has to do with like an acapella group,

so they have Boys II Men do an acapella version of the thing.

And there's one that movies kind of play into it, so they do kind of

like an old timey, noir kind of feel.

They changed up their titles sequence a lot.

And you're like, okay, this was a massive, successful show, which I

knew that it was, but that's, it is huge for them to do things like that.

Nifty.

You got the insider scoop here, folks.

Might be a little inside baseball for some people, but I like it.

I didn't know that.

That's neat.

Yeah.

Well, I think that about does it for this episode.

Thank you so much for joining us and we hope you'll join us again

for our next episode where we'll discuss season one, episode three,

If you are just too excited to wait until our next episode to chat, send us

an email at tabularasabpod@gmail.com.

And you can also say hello to us on Twitter, Instagram, or

Facebook at @tabularasabpod.

I love that we already have all those socials.

Eeee!

And if you just want to follow me - cause, like, ew Nick - then you can follow

- Nick Mercer: Fair, I feel the same way.

You can find Allie Press on all the social medias.

@Daughterpick on Twitter and Instagram.

That's DAU-GHT-ER-PICK.

And you can follow me on TikTok @futureblackcat.

And last but not least, if you would like to support me as an artist,

throw a few bucks my way, you can go to BuyMeACoffee.com/AlliePress.

A-L-L-I-E P-R-E-S-S.

All social media handles are in the description.

Y'all better give your bank accounts to Allie because she's perfect.

And Allie, I hope you make some incredibly proud choices.

Thank you, Nicholas.

Uh, you are a precious gift and so are all of you listeners.

Until next time.

Bye.

[Outro Music slowly fades in.]

Tabula Rasa, B!tches!

is hosted by Allie Press and Nick Mercer with music by InflatonCult,

artwork by Charlotte Fleming Design, and consultation by Evo Terra.