Phases (Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode)
From Iwe
| "Phases" | |||
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode | |||
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 15 | ||
| Directed by | Bruce Seth Green | ||
| Written by | Rob Des Hotel Dean Batali | ||
| Production code | 5V15 | ||
| Original air date | January 27, 1998 | ||
| Guest actors | |||
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| Episode chronology | |||
| ← Previous "Innocence" | Next → "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" | ||
| List of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes | |||
"Phases" is episode 15 of season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Contents |
Plot synopsis
"Phases" begins with Willow's increasing frustration that Oz shows no sign of wanting to get serious — not to mention physical — with her. Cordelia is frustrated with Xander because he keeps talking about Willow, even while making out in Sunnydale's lover's lane under a beautiful full moon. They are attacked by a werewolf that rips a hole in the car's roof. Giles points out that there have been quite a number of other attacks, though so far only animals have been killed. During high school gym class, it is revealed that at least two students have been bitten lately: Oz by a cousin who doesn't like to be tickled, and school macho Larry by a dog.
After some research, Giles finds out that a werewolf is a wolf for three nights — the coming night would be the second. Since the werewolf is human the rest of the month, it would be wrong to kill him. This, however, is not the view of werewolf hunter Cain, whom Buffy and Giles meet while looking for the animal in a part of the woods where Xander and Cordelia were making out: Cain is out for his twelfth pelt. Despite the contempt between Buffy and Cain, due largely to Cain's rampant male chauvinism, Giles and Buffy do learn that the werewolf will be attracted by "sexual heat" to places where teenagers hang out.
Buffy and Giles rush to The Bronze, where Cordelia and Willow are busy complaining to each other about their men when the werewolf crashes the party. Buffy tries to catch it with a chain but fails. Cain joins them and points out that it will be Buffy's fault if the werewolf kills anybody. A body does turn up the next morning: Theresa, one of the students that Larry was tormenting. Buffy is not the only one to have feelings of guilt. Oz wakes up in the forest, naked and confused after changing back from his wolf state before the viewers' eyes. Recalling the bite he got, he calls his Aunt Maureen, and bluntly asks if his cousin is a werewolf. The answer is yes.
Themes
In an essay exploring the feminist ethics of Buffy, Shannon Craigo-Snell uses this episode as an example of how the series examines the threat of sexual violence facing women and girls as a "problematic background against which women attempt to have satisfying relationships with men." Craigo-Snell points out that this threat is embodied by the character of Larry, who sexually harasses Buffy (and other girls) during a gym class focused on self-defense, and the werewolf-hunter Cain, who says Buffy's failure to capture the werewolf is "what happens when a woman tries to do a man’s job." This theme is made explicit when Giles describes werewolves as "potent, extreme representation of our inborn, animalistic traits", predatory and aggressive with no conscience, and Buffy responds, "In other words, your typical male."
Production details
This episode is considered the first in a "trilogy" about Willow and Oz, followed by "Wild at Heart" and "New Moon Rising".
Actor Jack Conley, who plays Cain in this episode, also portrays the recurring character Sahjhan in seasons three and five of Angel.
The director, Bruce Seth Green, is not related
Continuity
References
External links
| Buffy the Vampire Slayer | ||
|---|---|---|
| Canon • Index • Joss Whedon | ||
| Series | Film • Television • (Episodes • 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7) • Comics (Season Eight • Season Nine) • Buffyverse canon | |
| Main characters | Buffy • Willow • Xander • Cordelia • Giles • Angel • Spike • Oz • Anya • Tara • Dawn • Riley | |
| Major villains | The Master • Drusilla • Angelus • The Mayor • Adam • Glory • The Trio • Dark Willow • The First | |
| Spin-offs | Angel • Fray • Tales of the Slayers • Tales of the Vampires • Buffy the Animated Series | |
| Expanded universe | Novels • Undeveloped productions • Video games | |
| Auxiliary | Academia • CCG • DVDs • Guidebooks • In popular culture • Magazines • Music • RPGs | |
| Universe | Big Bads • Hellmouth • Main characters • Minor characters • Monsters • • Scooby Gang • Sunnydale • Vampire | |
