Witch

I watched Witch, the third episode of Buffy for today’s blog. This is one of the episodes that the High School is Hell article talked about. Buffy is trying out for the cheerleading team and finds out that the team is very competitive. One of the girls on the team is trying to fill her mother’s shoes, but does not quite make the team. She is the third alternate, and as the episode goes on, three people from the cheerleading team are hurt in supernatural ways. Buffy and Giles realize there must be a witch at work, and through a few tests they find out that the girl is the witch. However, we find out that the girl’s mother is the actual witch and she switched bodies with her daughter to relive her glory years.
This episode deals with the real issue of people trying too hard to impress their parents and also to get on sports teams, although this does exaggerate it. People will hurt themselves trying to be good enough, and although they may not resort to spell casting, there is certainly some sabotage that can go on. I know lots of parents who try to live vicariously through their kids to some degree, whether it be through sports or academics. People often feel alienated from their parents when this is the case, because they don’t make any efforts to relate to the kid, they just make sure their kids live like they did. This is a good issue to have addressed by this show, because it allowed me to appreciate what the daughter must have been going through.

Matthew