The Master of Metaphor

Some of the Buffy baddies are far from subtle in the metaphor department. In “The Witch”, the overachieving cheerleader wannabe was really her own evil, overbearing mother trying to relive her glory days. This tied in nicely with Buffy’s own desire to be popular and also with her lack of an involved mother. The evil mom and her struggling daughter were everything that Buffy and her mother were not.

Not all the villains were quite as obvious, however. Darla, the Master’s Girl-Friday and Angel’s ex, seemed to represent everything that Buffy was fighting against becoming – someone who completely lacks empathy and kills for fun. It is interesting however, that she is so similar in appearance to Buffy – blonde, attractive, young (looking anyway). I think this physical similarity points to what Buffy is capable of, even if she never becomes a vampire. Buffy must balance her need for cold objectivity in the face of death with her desire to remain human and empathetic with her fellow man.

Perhaps the most challenging character to crack is the Master. Does he represent Buffy’s absent father? Death? Or more convincingly, is the Master a metaphor for Buffy’s destiny, forced upon her against her will? The Master was already in Sunnydale waiting for Buffy to arrive. No matter how many vampires she faced in Season 1, the Master came up with yet another evil plan that cost Buffy more of her precious “normal” time. Even with the Master’s Death in “Prophecy Girl,” she cannot completely escape him. He forces her to face her death, and then in the Season 2 opener, he nearly rises again. It seems that, like her destiny as the Slayer, Buffy cannot escape the Master. Even though she has crushed his bones to dust, his Anointed remains to cause trouble for the unwilling Slayer.