Jennifer Ouellette - The Physics of the Buffyverse

OF THE

JENNIFER OUELLETTE

PENGUIN BOOKS

Published by Penguin Group

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First published in Penguin Books 2006

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Copyright Jennifer Ouellette, 2006

All rights reserved

Illustrations by Paul Dlugokencky

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Ouellette, Jennifer.

The physics of the Buffyverse / by Jennifer Ouellette ;
illustrations by Paul Dlugokencky.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978-1-101-20132-9

1. PhysicsMicellanea. 2. PhysicsHumor. 3. Buffy, the vampire slayer (Television program) I. Title.

QC75.084 2007

530dc22 2006025634

Printed in the United States of America

Set in Minion and Trade Gothic

Designed by Judith Stagnitto Abbate / Abbate Design

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For the fandom

Science must begin with myths.
SIR KARL POPPER

Welcome to the Buffyverse

Hells empty, and all the demons are here.
Ariel, THE TEMPEST

I t begins with the sound of shattering glass. A young man and his pretty blond date break into the science lab at the local high school late one night for a bit of mischiefmost likely to engage in some extracurricular hanky-panky on the roof. The girl appears nervous, starting at every sound, fearful that someone, or something, with evil intentions, is lurking in the darkened school. The young man has all the arrogance of youth, dismissing her fears and assuring her with an insinuating leer that they are quite alone. Whereupon the girls face transforms into that of a fanged, yellow-eyed demon, and she sinks her teeth into her soon-to-be-former dates neck.

This is the weird yet wonderful world of the Buffyverse, where magic, vampires, and demons are real, and mystical convergences and otherworldly phenomena are everyday occurrences. When Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted as a midseason replacement in 1997, few industry insiders expected it to do well. After all, the campy film version had tanked at the box office. Actor Kiefer Sutherlandwhose father, Donald Sutherland, co-starred in the filmreportedly was so pessimistic about its chances that he told the shows star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, not to worry, because she was bound to get another series later on. But the TV show defied the naysayers and ended up running for seven seasons. While it never achieved the blockbuster popularity of mainstream sitcoms like Friends or Seinfeld, Buffy quickly attracted a strong cult following, drawn by its unique blend of horror, science fiction, and high school melodrama. The show also became a critics darling, thanks to generous sprinklings of mythology, literary allusion, biting wit, and a lexicon of its own hip teen lingo (dubbed Buffyspeak).

The premise is simple enough: Into every generation, a Slayer is born, one girl with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires. That girl is fifteen-year-old Buffy Summers. In the pilot episode (Welcome to the Hellmouth), Buffy moves to the fictional town of Sunnydale, California, with her divorced mother, Joyce, after Buffy is expelled from her former high school in Los Angeles. (She burned down the gym, but there were extenuating circumstances: It was full of vampires.)

Sunnydale is not the picture-perfect town that it seems to be on the surface. It is located squarely on top of a Hellmouth, a mystical portal between the world of Sunnydale and a separate hell dimension. The Hellmouth emits all kinds of bad juju, and its energy draws evil beings to the area like a giant magnet of badness. Buffys job is to keep the demons at bay and prevent hell from erupting on Earth. She does so for the next seven years, beating back everything from vampires to hell gods to the very First Evil, while simultaneously grappling with the usual travails of high school, college, and the onset of young adulthoodall of which can be scarier than any demon horde.

Fortunately, she doesnt fight alone. Buffy is aided by her oh-so-British Watcher, Rupert Giles, and her new friends: Willow, Xander, and Angela reformed vampire cursed by gypsies who restored his human soul. In 1999, Angel became the star of his very own eponymous spinoff series (Angel). He sets up shop as a private investigator to fight injustice and help the hopeless in a fictionalized version of Los Angeleswhich usually involves killing demons and battling other forces of evil. The characters and events that populate these two series make up what is known as the Buffyverse.